


The Legacy of Bahamut

by starfallfantasy



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Action, Drama, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-30
Updated: 2015-06-30
Packaged: 2018-04-07 00:28:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 64,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4242543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starfallfantasy/pseuds/starfallfantasy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A small group of friends that get together every week to role play are mysteriously transported to a world of their greatest imaginations and fantasy's. Soon enough though the friends find out that this world isn't exactly everything they imagined it would be and the dangers of it are much realer than they realize.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> About 90% of this work was written on old-school pen and paper while in high-school (literally in class too) and later finished while copying over to computer. So while I am aware of the egregious grammar and writing of it I don't have the time or care to go back and edit the whole story or re-write it properly. So with that in mind try to ignore the grammar and spelling and enjoy the overall story.

Dungeons & Dragons: The Legacy of Bahamut

Prologue 

It was a chilly fall day just after school. Sam, Ella, Dan, Andy, and Shaun were all heading over to their friend Josh’s who skipped the day at school to get some early holiday shopping in. The friends were not expecting to go over to Josh’s for several weeks though, they all thought he would be busy working on a new campaign for all of them to play.

However, Josh had a major surprise for them or so his text message’s said. They all got the message near the end of the school day so obviously Josh was highly anticipating on them coming over. Everyone decided that it couldn’t hurt to see what Josh was so excited about that he had to have them all come over immediately so they decided to go for a couple hours. Fortunately for all of them they all lived within a 3 mile radius of the school so they all got used to walking and Josh’s house was only a minor detour from any of their homes. Once they arrived at Josh’s house Sam rung to doorbell several times like he always did when the full group of friends was with him. In a mere moment after Sam had rung the doorbell everyone could hear the loud rush of footsteps approaching the door quickly. 

“Wow it sounds like someone is back on one gallon of soda a day” Sam said sarcastically. 

All of the friends chuckled lightly at Sam’s remark. Then the door swung wide open nearly smacking Sam in the face. Josh stood on the other side of the door with an enormous smile on his face. Before any of them could say “hi” Josh grabbed Sam and Shaun and pulled them inside.

“There is something incredibly awesome I have to show you guys. Come on follow me.”

Like all of his friends Josh was 14 and a freshman in high school. Josh had dark wavy hair that he kept at medium length some how he was able to pull of a real decent look like this having the minimal effort to do so as well. He was average height but was a very skinny guy. Normally Josh was calm and unenthusiastic.

Josh rushed everyone down to his basement. They normally came over to Josh’s when he had a new campaign of Dungeons and Dragons for them to play, and they always played down in his basement. Josh’s parents had plenty of room because they didn’t buy a whole bunch of pointless stuff they were going to hold onto or would throw something away when they knew they couldn’t use it. Josh’s family also packed away whatever holiday decorations or outfits they had inside their attic. The basement wasn’t abnormally large it was just free. Indeed the only furniture inside the basement was a table for Josh and his friends to sit at, chairs set around the table, and a bookshelf that Josh put all of his previous campaigns packed into binders on. 

Sitting on the table was a hard cover blue book, it was the only thing that seemed to have been different about the basement the last time they were all there. The book had a silver dragon like symbol on the front cover and it was titled: “The legacy of Bahamut” 

Josh walked over to the book and picked it up. “I found this at one of the older book stores downtown.” Josh said. “There doesn’t seem to be an author or even a publisher marked inside the book anywhere. I also asked the shop keeper if he could find any other copies but wherever he searched he found nothing.”

“Alright so you called us down here to show us a ghost book?” Ella asked. 

“That’s only half of it!” Josh retorted.

“As I was reading through it I discovered that there is a playable campaign here inside the book.” Josh said. “You have to read between the lines to get more details about it but otherwise from what I have read it’s really unique. I haven’t gotten very far into the book either so it’s all a surprise to me for what’s going to happen next. It’s based on 5 players and with me as the DM it fits us perfectly.”

Though none of them seemed to notice, all of the friends felt a strange sensation from hearing about the mysteries inside the book. Who wrote it, where did it come from, and how it ended up with Josh were questions that never crossed anyone’s mind. At that time they only cared about starting this strange adventure and possibly finding out the answers to this mysterious book.

“Alright then” Sam said. “When do we start?”

“I was thinking this weekend.” Josh said just as Sam finished asking already knowing his friend’s response. “My parents are going to the store Friday so I was thinking Saturday afternoon. You can make your characters; we can spend some time getting into the story and everything else and then still have time for homework.” 

Everyone nodded in agreement to Josh’s plan. It worked rather well for all of them too seeing how they were a little bit behind on their classes. They only needed a full day at most to get caught up anyways. This left them with some time to relax when everyone was done.

 

As the weekend finally came the friends all gathered at Josh’s house just before noon. They all arrived within twenty minutes of the first person to show up. Surprisingly it was Ella who showed up first and Dan who showed up last. Once everyone was in the basement and settled into their seats Josh asked, “Alright so how many of you have made your characters yet?”

Everyone pulled out two sheets of paper with all their characters information recorded on it from their bags. Josh sat there silently for a long moment. He expected them to at least have started their characters sheets but everyone was already finished.

“Alright then” Josh eventually said. “I guess we should introduce are characters, umm who wants to go first?”

It was Sam who spoke up first and said, “I’m playing as an Eladrin. My class is going to be a ranger. You may call me Ian Death whisper” 

When Sam finished Shaun was the next to speak, “I have decided to go as a human artificer this time around. My in game name will be Tekaru the wise.”

“Awesome you can revive the enemies for me to kill again.” Andy remarked.

“You seem confident as always Andy.” Sam said in response to Andy’s remark. “Do you plan on using us as decoy’s in every fight through this campaign as well?” 

Sam’s words came out like an intense fire, causing a high tension around the room amongst the friends. They’re last campaign was filled with dozens of encounters but everyone reached their limit of working together in the fights and soon enough were doing there own thing in these fights without much team work at all. It did not take very long for them to become frustrated with each other during a more difficult encounter where teamwork was required to prevail. However they managed to make it through every encounter mainly because they had three major power house characters.

It was true however what Sam said, Andy would use all of them as decoys while picking off the weaker monsters first. Never once did Andy make a move to help his comrades through that entire campaign. The biggest problem about Andy’s strategy however was that it was working so well, he was the one taking out the most monsters at a time because he could use area attacks to take care of the minions first. And when those were all gone he could use his more powerful directs spells to either finish or severely weaken the already half dead stronger monsters that remained. After that campaign was over though they all promised to put it all behind them and not to bring it up again and they kept this promise well and said nothing of it until today.

“Hey I was just playing by my characters alignment and my class strategy.” Andy said. “If you guys want to take front position in a fight, taking the monster head on who am I not to take advantage of the chaos?”

Andy did have a point, though Sam would not let it go so easily. Before things got worse Ella Jumped into the argument, “Alright it’s done!” She said. “That is all in the past and we all agreed long ago to drop it. Besides this is a brand new and unknown campaign.” 

Ella turned to Josh for some support. Noticing Ella’s queue for help Josh continued steering the argument to the new campaign. “Yeah Ella is right guys this campaign is still undiscovered by any of us so who knows what it contains.” Josh said. “I have only gotten a twelve page sneak peak into it and that isn’t much.”

The tension slowly died down as Dan was the next to speak, “I have decided to give the paladin another shot. Last time I played a paladin I did a decent job so I figured why not have another go at it.”

“Umm I presume your playing as a human too right Dan?” Josh asked.

“Oh yeah I forgot to say my characters race. But yes I doubt I will be playing anything other than a human for a while. My in game name is Allen strong sword.”

“Well you guys can play it safe in familiar territories.” Ella said. “I on the other hand will boldly go where no gamer chick has gone before. I’m going as a seventh time elf playing as a first time druid. My glorious in game name will be Sena the brave.”

Ella’s superficial act while she was announcing her character managed to bring smiles back to the group. Ella was rather good at cheering people up and that’s why they all enjoyed having her around. There was also the bonus of having a girl for a friend who was as big of a nerd as they were.

“I have decided to go into unfamiliar territory as well” Andy said. “This time I will play as a Tiefling warlock and my alignment will be chaotic neutral. With even the flip of a coin my alliance can be turned who knows the outcome of venturing with this ticking time bomb?” Andy had a menacing tone while announcing his character and kept this menacing grin on his face. It was all a bluff of course. Andy may have been a jerk at times but he would never betray his friends for any reason. 

After about half an hour all of the character introductions were done and there were several empty cans of mountain dew around the table as well as two large bags of chips opened and half emptied. Everyone was ready to begin as Josh opened the book and started reading.

Nobody seemed to notice but as soon as Josh started reading, the air in the room had shifted. Josh continued reading out loud and was still in the books introduction when everyone began to feel an unusual sensation looming around them. Soon Josh’s words began to sound distant and wavering. Josh was about eight pages into the book now when the friends began seriously noticing the strange phenomenon happening around them.

Josh?” Sam asked.  
No response Josh kept reading the book. He seemed almost possessed by it. Now everyone was getting scarred. They all looked at each other to make sure this wasn’t just in their own heads. It was not.

“JOSH!” All of them screamed at the same time. Still there was no answer. Then the book started to glow with luminescent blue light. The light from it got brighter and brighter until everyone was blinded by it. Josh’s words were cut out as the book seemed to have reached its peak of luminosity, and then everything went black…


	2. A new Reality

Chapter One: A New Reality

 

When Josh woke up, everything was dead silent. He didn’t know how long he had been asleep or what happened. The last thing he could remember is that he started reading the book aloud to his friends before he apparently passed out. 

It was only now that Josh noticed all his friends passed out around the table as well. He immediately stood up and rushed over to Sam, and shook him. No response.

At first Josh thought this was some kind of a joke well orchestrated by his friends so he waited for several minutes. Still they didn’t move so Josh went around shaking all of them to get some kind of response he knew at least one of them would have just given up by now. Still they remained still almost dead, and that’s when Josh called the hospital.

 

Sam opened his eyes and was starring at the sky. He felt heavy as he stood up onto his feet. His head was still spinning when he asked, “What happened?”

Only after he asked that question did Sam begin to realize the abnormality of his situation. The last thing Sam could remember was that he was at Josh’s house with every one. They were starting a campaign hidden inside this strange book Josh bought.

Then Sam’s head started pounding as the final moments of that strange event rushed back to him. He remembered Josh reading from the book aloud when all of these strange events began happening. First the book started to glow a blue light as Josh read further into it but he seemed to take no notice as he continued reading. Everyone screamed at him but Josh seemed to be possessed by the book and would not stop reading from it. Finally the last thing Sam could remember was the light from the book shining so bright that he became completely blinded and now just waking up starring at the sky. 

“What’s going on?” An unusual voice asked from behind Sam.

Sam turned around and saw first a man with short brown hair, wearing a blue tinted robe and holding a long wooden staff. Around the man he saw others beginning to stand up, not all of them were human either. One of them looked like a man who was partially goat, and partially demon. He had long pointy ears, brown skin with a light shade of gray, and long curved horns on his forehead. 

Next to this strange subhuman creature was a woman who also had pointy ears but hers were more like a felines. She had long straight and very light blonde hair, she wore a green tunic that looked to be woven out of silk and ivy the same went for her pants. Her eyes had a very deep green tint to them, and her skin looked beautifully fare.

Finally next to her was a large man with golden blonde hair, clad fully in a heavy set of iron armor. He had a medium broad sword in his right hand and round shield around his left hand. As all of them stood up and looked at one another they slowly began to back away from each other and began raising there weapons and arms in defense until Sam walked up to the man with the blue and white robes and asked, “Shaun? Shaun it’s me Sam” 

Everyone immediately stopped backing away and lowered there defenses as they looked closer at each other. Of course none of them could have known who the others characters had looked liked because they had yet to describe they’re characters. The only thing they knew about the others characters was their race and class. 

Everyone looked at themselves and there new environment. They were in the middle of some plains; near them was a dirt road that led up a large hill in one direction or towards a forest in the other direction. The sky was cloudless and there was a light breeze it wasn’t cold or warm it could have been spring wherever they were. 

Then after they had all taken in their surroundings everyone took one last long look at those around them until they confirmed to themselves these were indeed their friends. However they have all some how mysteriously transformed into the characters they had created. After some time of awkward silence Sam finally took notice to his own changed features, he seemed to resemble a darker and male version of Ella. He also noticed that his eye sight seems to have increased. Sam pulled an arrow out from his quill, loaded it up in his bow and took aim at some of the leaves falling from the distant trees. After a steady moment of concentration Sam released his grip on the arrow as it soared through the air splitting a leaf in half almost instantly after he let go of the arrow. 

Everyone watched this incredible feat as Sam jumped up in cheer and shouted “this is so awesome!” Soon all the others were playing around with their new found abilities testing out their characters skills either at a safe distance from the others or by wrestling around with each other. 

The friends had been too busy enjoying themselves that they didn’t notice how much time had gone by until it was almost completely dark, or how hungry they were from not eating for a full day while expending all of their energy. They all grouped up back together and argued about what they should do about they’re current situation, eventually they unanimously decided that it was best or them to rest several feet from the trail under the cover of night and to either hunt for food when they wake or to find a village where they could eat. Fortunately for them it was a warm enough night for them to rest without needing any extra cover and once they had removed their armor and put their weapons out of way so they don’t harm themselves while asleep they huddled around in small pack and fell into a deep peaceful sleep. 

 

Josh woke up with his head pounding ad his eye sight very blurry. “How long was I out?” Josh asked. No response though. Josh’s sight returned to him as he was about to repeat his question when he saw all his friends passed out around the table. At first Josh thought it was some highly elaborate prank on him and they were all in on it so he waited for several minutes expecting them to get bored and just get up or twitch because they couldn’t sit still for so long. However nothing happened they just lay there lifeless, now Josh was panicking. Something was very wrong they shouldn’t be this still prank or not this had gone too far. 

Josh Rushed over to Dan to pick up his arm then let it go. It simply just dropped back onto the table he was either out cold or dead. Josh grabbed Dan’s wrist again and felt a pulse after a moment of fearful waiting. Josh didn’t bother checking the others, what ever happened to his friends could be fatal so he rushed up stairs, grabbed the house phone and dialed 911. 

Josh’s parents returned home from work just as five ambulances pulled up to their house and paramedics rushed inside. Both his parents rushed over to their son who was standing on the lawn out of the paramedic’s way with sorrow and fear all over his face. Josh’s parents rushed over to their son to hug him and ask “Josh what’s going on?” Josh’s eyes had filled with tears no longer able to bear the overwhelming sorrow contained inside him as he said to them, “I don’t know suddenly we all passed out and when I woke up the others were still sleeping. I thought it was some kind of joke but they weren’t budging at all so I called 911” Before Josh’s parents could respond or ask him what they were even doing the paramedics came out carrying his friends on stretchers and he rushed over to them demanding to know if his friends would be alright. But the paramedics all said the same thing as they got his friends into the ambulances and drove off; “I don’t know kid” 

A police officer calmly walked up to Josh after the ambulance’s had left. “I know you’re in serious distress right now young man.” The officer said calmly and professionally like he had handled people in a panic before. “However at this time there is nothing you can do for them and I’m sure in a few hours after the hospital has done some tests to see what’s wrong with them you can go see them; however I would like for you to come with me to the station to answer some questions.” Josh’s dad stepped between him and the officer angry that the man dared to make any form of accusation against his son at such a tragic moment. His mom stood next to him with her hand on Josh’s shoulder, “are you accusing my son of something?” She demanded to know. 

The officer let out a sigh and said, “Of course not ma’am however it’s merely protocol that in this situation we get all the information we can on what’s happened. Regardless of how, I do have five other teenagers in a current state of comma and only one witness all I’m going to do is take him to the station get his story and talk to the hospital about the children’s situations.”

Josh’s parents were displeased with they’re son being treated like a criminal but they had no other choice but to go along with what the officer said. Then Josh walked towards the cop’s car and without looking back said to his parents, “It’s alright Mom, Dad. I will meet with you at the station.”

The officer was impressed by the boy’s maturity at the situation and now that he had a chance to breath Josh had calmed down severely, he knew that right now the only thing he could do was wait for the hospital to try anything and he still had some time to kill before they would even let him see them so it was best to tell the cop what had happened now and then go to see his friends. As josh walked to the officer’s car for the backseat the cop surprisingly opened the front door to the passenger side. It was a wonderful gesture to Josh at the time it made him feel less like a criminal sitting in the front instead of the back. 

Josh wanted to tell the officer his story as soon as they got to his desk but both of them knew he legally couldn’t speak to the officer without parent permission under the age of 18 so they both waited patiently until his parents arrived. It was only five minutes later until Josh’s parents arrived at the station. As soon as they sat down Josh started telling the officer what had happened before everyone passed out. He started with they’re plan to meet up on this day and how they had been meeting up like this to play a campaign of dungeons and dragons for years now. He gave the officer every detail of the event except for some reason Josh felt it was best not to tell him about the campaign coming from the book instead he lied and said he made up the story for they’re campaign himself as he often did. 

The officer listened quietly to Josh’s story and waited until the very end to ask, “Have any of you ever done any kind of drugs or took some kind of funny medicine?” 

The officer already knew the answer was “no” but protocol dictated that he asked anyways. And after Josh confirmed that none of them were on any medications or have ever used drugs the officer gave out a light smile. “Alright well you honestly sound like a great kid and I believe your story too. So I’m going to call the hospital right now and see what your friends situation is, can you hold on for a few minutes while I do this?” 

Josh nodded his forehead a little surprised at the officer’s generosity; then again Josh was in a state of panic as well so the officer didn’t have many ways to approach him. This officer though seemed very kind and probably somehow felt pity for Josh. He had just been going about his daily routines he and his friends had done for years they were all playing their games as they have so many times before and suddenly the boy’s world was turned upside down all his friends mysteriously passing out, the boy unaware as too why he woke up when they didn’t or if they even would at all. At least that’s how Josh imagined the officer’s perspective on things. 

The officer hung up the phone after about 20 minutes, half of which he was on hold. “Well I have some good news and some bad news, So far your friends are all alive and they’re vitals are normal, as well they are doing some drug tests to make sure something didn’t get introduced into them. Now this could be from anything they could have been walking by a plant when it let out some kind of harmful chemicals which they unknowingly absorbed or from some contaminated water they drank we won’t know until the tests results get in. The bad news however is so far they don’t have any reaction from them. Right now they are in the coma ward while we the doctors try to figure out they’re reason behind the sudden collapse. You can see them tomorrow but the doctors want you to go pay a visit to the hospital so they can run some tests on you as well.”

As soon as the officer was done talking Josh got up with his parents and they drove down to the hospital. Though Josh’s parents were relieved to hear Josh wasn’t in any trouble Josh was still extremely distressed and hadn’t spoken a word the whole drive down to the hospital. When they arrived there Josh walked up to the counter immediately, telling the clerk that some Dr. wanted to see him and run some tests. He gave the clerk his name and a few moments later a “Dr. Webber” was paged. When the Dr. arrived Josh’s parents offered to go with him for the tests but he said he didn’t want them there so they sat in the lobby waiting for him to return.

As Josh and Dr. Webber walked down the hospital Dr. Webber told Josh that they would take a blood sample and run some tests on that, then run a “cat “scan on him, and were going to keep him over night just in case something happened while they checked to make sure he was going to be alright. The only thing Josh said while he went to the “cat” scan room was “alright then”. 

After Josh had finished the “cat” scan, and they got a blood sample from him a nurse led him to his room while she said, “Your parents have been informed that you are going to be staying overnight. We won’t have the test results back until tomorrow so get some rest.” But before the nurse could leave Josh immediately asked, “What about my friends can I see them?” The nurse sighed before saying, “Where not sure right now they’re in the coma ward as the doctors do everything they can to figure out what’s wrong with them. They’re brain activity shows fine and it doesn’t seem like anything was introduced to them but were still waiting on those test results like with you, so get some rest and we’ll know more in the morning.”

Then the nurse was gone and Josh was in his own room all alone, wondering how his friends were doing. After about 10 minutes of silent wondering and worry Josh had decided he had enough of sitting around he knew he wouldn’t even be able to attempt sleep until he at least got to see his friends. So Josh stood up and wandered around the hospital until he eventually found the coma ward.

When Josh arrived at the coma ward it was an unbelievable sight that he beheld. Seeing all his beloved friends sitting in beds near lifeless with tubes stuffed up their nostrils to breathe, and more tubes in their arms pumping IV into them. As painful as it was to see even more so was the ominous feeling of guilt that Josh had felt. 

Josh slowly walked up to his friends one by one grabbing their hands as he looked at them more closely. They looked peaceful in this rest of theirs but somehow he couldn’t stop his tears from falling, Josh wasn’t a strong character he knew that and he never really had to face to many changes in life to test it, up until now that is. These friends were his life they had known each other since they were all about 7 and despite Josh’s flaws in his character he always had one of them to support him, when his grandparents passed away they were all there when his parents were too stricken with grief or work to really care about him. When he couldn’t get a pet because his parents couldn’t afford it, it was Ella who let Josh come over as much as he wanted to play with her new dog. They were the best friends anyone could ever hope for and now they were lost to him, the fact they may never wake up at all is what Josh feared the most. 

After Josh made his way around the room to each of his friends remembering the best of times they had together he found a seat at the back next to an empty bed. He sat there as the good memories with his friends, which sometimes were the worst passed through his mind letting his tears fall. Eventually after a couple hours he was done crying and walked back to his empty hospital room, crawled into the bed, closed his eyes and went to sleep.

 

Ella was the first one to wake up just as the sun was starting to rise over the horizon. It was good she woke up first too because she had to relive herself and didn’t want any of the boys sneaking a peek, not that they would but she felt awkward knowing she would have to go into the woods to do so.

Sam woke up to a clear sky the sun was risen but still had away to climb and the morning air was fresh and enjoyable. He got up quietly so not to disturb the others as he went to where all of their gear sat and got suited up in his armor and prepared his bow. Sam was determined to go hunting today and bring back some food for everyone so when they woke up they would all have a tasty meal. 

As Sam prepared to go into the woods hunting he saw a small white rabbit hopping up to his friends and for a moment Sam thought the rabbit was just stupid for coming near them. Then he thought to himself “whatever an easy breakfast is breakfast all the same.” Sam pulled an arrow out of his quiver and began to take aim at the rabbit carefully so he wouldn’t hit one of his friends with it fast approaching them, when he noticed something alarming. Ella wasn’t among them. Sam didn’t even think twice about scarring off the rabbit as he dropped his bow and arrow and ran over to his friends.

Sam didn’t see her as he got up to them and then yelled “Ella!” no response Sam yelled again as he started shaking everyone awake. Everyone stirred at first but then immediately thought they were in some kind of trouble to be woken up so abruptly. They all jumped to their feet and looked at Sam and glanced over to their gear to make sure it was still there in case of a fight. 

Sam knew already that they would wonder if they were in some kind of danger so before they had the chance to overwhelm Sam with their questions he said, “Ella is missing I called out for her but no answer.” Everyone calmed down a bit after the sudden panic but they were still alarmed. “Ella!” Dan shouted his voice booming over the plains and possibly into the woods. They all started gearing up as fast as they could. There was no way Ella couldn’t have heard Dan shouting something was terribly wrong. 

Once everyone was almost fully geared up Sam started barking orders, “alright Shaun, Dan you two will check out the forest for any sign of her, Andy you’re with me on the trail we’ll head up the hill and see what we can spot.” “Hold on a second Sam that won’t be Necessary. Everyone calm down I know where Ella is.” They all froze in place and turned to look at Andy who was holding the same rabbit Sam almost shot for breakfast. “Well where?” Sam Demanded. 

Andy smiled mischievously or perhaps just happy, with his new form no one could tell anymore when he smiled. His teeth were always sharp looking and yellow. “She’s right in front of all of you of course.” Andy said while he held his eerie smile. They all looked Andy up and down and looked past him but they didn’t see Ella at all. 

“There’s no one but you Andy now stop wasting time” Sam said.

“You seem to be oblivious to my new companion here.”

They all looked at the rabbit he was holding and then back to Andy but before they could speak he continued, “Now why oh why would a rabbit be as bold as too come up to a group of scary travelers such as ourselves. On top of that why has Ella suddenly disappeared on us, I wonder what her and this adorable rabbit could have in common?”

They all stood there starring at Andy dumbfounded. Shaun was the first to speak up after a long moment of silence. “Ella?” he asked curiously. Andy smiled and the rabbit began to talk, “Finally” it said. “I was wondering if you guys were ever going to notice, and you Sam. Just what the hell do you think you are doing pointing an arrow at me like you were doing? Luckily Andy here was the only one who has any brains otherwise you guys would probably trampled me to death back there.” 

Everyone stood there in amazement the rabbit was not only talking but it sounded just like Ella. “I’m afraid our poor Ella here has somehow transformed into a rabbit.” Andy said. “And she can’t seem to turn back to her original form.” 

“Wait a minute.” Sam interrupted Andy before he could continue any further. “If this Rabbit is indeed Ella then how come you were the only one of us to notice Andy?”

“Isn’t it obvious I did tell you before it were strange a rabbit would come up to a group of people in any circumstance? After I got dressed I saw our little Rabbit Ella here waving her adorable paws in the air at us. Curious I went over to the rabbit and that’s when she told me about what happened to her. While you were all finishing gearing up and Sam was barking orders I was listening to her tale. Apparently Ella woke up first and went into the woods to go to the bathroom, afterwards a small rabbit hopped up to her. She pet it and it ran off but next thing she knew after that she was shrinking and her clothes became too big for her. Then after a little while of running around she soon discovered she somehow transformer herself into a rabbit similar to the one she was petting. After that she came back to us to help but instead all of you ran around like a bunch of oaths.”

They looked to the rabbit Ella. “Is this true?” Dan asked. 

“Yes and I don’t know how to change back either.”

“Perhaps if you concentrate on your form before you changed, imagining yourself turning back to what you were before you became a rabbit.” Shaun said.

Everyone was quite for a few minutes then Ella said, “It’s worth a shot.”

Andy set Ella down on the grass as they backed away from her so she could concentrate. At first nothing happened and everyone thought that it wasn’t going to work until Ella started to grow larger and change shape at the same time. If they hadn’t seen it for their own eyes they wouldn’t believe what happened. Now Ella was back to her elf form. Everyone starred at her with amazement for a moment then they all started blushing because Ella may have been back to her normal form but she didn’t have any cloths. Ella stood up and everyone looked away out of respect.

“It worked” thanks Shaun” Ella said as she ran up to hug Shaun. Shaun’s cheeks grew even redder as she wrapped her arms around him. Shaun cleared his throat a little loud and Ella let go of him. She saw how Shaun was looking away from her and then finally noticed why. Ella shrieked and ran into the forest to grab her clothes.

When Ella came out of the forest dressed Sam and Dan were arguing about something that Ella couldn’t make out while Shaun and Andy just stood by and watched. When she got closer she asked “what’s up you guys what’s the problem?” 

“Dan here thinks we should go follow that dirt road up the hill until we reach a town of some sort.” Sam said. “I thought we should stay around here for another night to get more acquainted to our new bodies and test out what sort of abilities we have.”

“an excellent idea of course but all I’m saying is we don’t know what’s out here were sitting on the edge of a forest we don’t know what sort of creatures may attack us tonight or the night after that. It would be much safer for us to go find a town and rest up at an Inn.” Dan responded. 

Sam retorted. “With what money, Inn’s do charge for the night and if you haven’t noticed we haven’t a clue of what sort of currency there might even be wherever we are or that we have any of it to spend.”

“If currency’s an issue Shaun has a sack of coins hidden in a small pocket in his sleeve” Ella said. 

Sam and Dan stopped yelling at each other to look at Ella then Shaun. Shaun only smiled lightly and reached into his sleeve pulling out a small sack which he bounced a couple times so everyone could hear the coins in there rattling. Sam and Dan both sighed at the same time then Ella said, “Well at the least let’s follow this trail and see where it takes us.” They all agreed and set out following the trail away from the forest.

 

Once the sun was beginning to set they were vastly approaching the first town they saw. The dirt road they followed curved a little bit but after about a days walk they made an easy path to this town. Andy threw up the hood that was part of his cloak he wore. With it on you could barley see Andy’s face at all only a dark form inside. Only if you got right up into his face you could see a little more but unless the sun was beaming directly on him it would be more shadows that you saw with some red eyes. 

“Why did you throw your hood on Andy?” Ella asked.

Shaun was the one to answer for Andy. “Were not sure what sort of people we are going to encounter ahead in this town. You and Sam may get some glances but Andy’s form could be troublesome it’s best that he hides it for the time being so we don’t cause trouble.”

“Wow that’s smart thinking.”

“Well some of us are going to need it if were to survive in this unknown world. We have yet to encounter any problems so far but we also have yet to encounter any life aside from some mild nature animals.” 

Everyone was silent after that as they strolled into town. People would occasionally glance at them and stare for a couple seconds sometimes but other than that they fit in rather well. The plan was to ask some of the townspeople about the area they were in but after much thought while walking down the road they all decided that it was best to keep too themselves and to learn as much as they could about the world on their own so they don’t seem like total strangers. Which they were but if people started getting suspicious of them it would be nice to bluff that they at least knew something instead of looking like total outcasts until they could learn more. That and the only thing on their minds was how hungry they all were. 

Just as the Sun was setting and the few stragglers of the late day were lingering around in the streets did they find the Inn. They got inside and stood around taking in the environment of the place while Shaun purchased them some rooms and a large meal. The Inn was exactly what you might expect from some sort of storybook world as was the town. It was very old-fashioned and almost medieval. 

Once there rooms were paid for and there meal was cooking they sat around a table with all their stomachs growling waiting for their meal to come. They were so hungry they didn’t care what they were going to have to eat they felt like they could stomach anything. “What did you order anyways Shaun?” Ella asked.

“Mostly Chicken and some lamb meat. I also ordered some vegetables and a few pieces of fruit for you just in case your elf body rejects meat.”

Ella smiled at Shaun, she hadn’t thought about how her new body would like to eat either. Then again they weren’t really thinking at all if it weren’t for Shauna and Andy everyone there might be in trouble by now, she could still be a rabbit, and Shaun would probably be the only one who was good enough with what little coins they had to ration it out as best they can until they can learn more of their situation, so far this first couple of days were alright but who knows what may lay ahead of them. Ella started to lose herself in these thoughts until a pain in her stomach grew so much that she couldn’t think straight anymore. It was then when she realized their food had gotten there and everyone but her was digging in. 

Ella devoured all of the fruits put in front of her as well as any of the fruit the others had gotten. Though the smell of the meats weren’t repulsive they weren’t appealing to her either. After they had finished eating everyone went upstairs to their rooms. Shaun had paired them up with the exception of Ella to save money so they would only need three rooms. Though they were tired there was still commotion that Ella could hear from the guys as they argued about who was getting the bed or how they should sleep. She snickered a little then it turned into an abrupt laughter. “No matter what situations were in boys will be boys” she thought to herself.

Finally after everything calmed down the Inn keepers blew out the candles and went to bed as everyone was settling into there own, somewhere between sleep and awake they all heard a voice echoing in there heads. “Sam? Andy? Shaun? Ella? Dan?” They all got up immediately and asked at the same time, “Josh!?”


	3. Who we are now

Chapter Two: Who We Are Now

 

Josh woke up feeling sluggish and drained. Though he got a full nights rest he felt horrible. A little better than the other night but still wasn’t much of a difference to him. There was a tray with food on one side of his bed but he didn’t feel all that hungry. On the table next to his little lamp in the room however was a book with a note on it. 

Josh picked up the note it read, “Josh your dad and I have to work but I’m getting off early today to come pick you up. Your test results came back fine there’s nothing wrong with you so you can come home today. Love Mom. P.S I brought by one of your books I didn’t know which one you would like and I was in a rush so I grabbed the first one I saw.”

Josh crumbled up the letter and threw it in the trash a bit irritated. His mom told him nothing about his friend’s condition and now he had to wait for a doctor to come by before he could even ask. Josh looked over at the book his mom brought by and felt a surge of anger. It was the book that had started this whole mess in the first place and all he wanted to do was throw the thing in the fire place. 

Josh picked up the book and was about ready to start tearing it apart just as a nurse walked in and said, “You haven’t eaten your food youngman.” Josh looked at her shyly as his anger started subsiding and he put the book down forgetting about it for the time being. “Excuse me nurse?” Josh asked. “I was wondering if you could tell me about the condition of my friends.” 

The nurse looked at him obviously contemplating telling him what she knew, and then she chewed on her bottom lip a moment before speaking. “How about you eat your food first and I tell you.” Josh grabbed his tray and started eating the food almost never letting his eyes leave the nurse so she can’t slip away while he was distracted. The nurse sighed but began talking. “The truth is we don’t know what’s going on with them. They’re as healthy as any teenager that age can really be, as well they’re brain activity is normal. Truth is its kind of frightening to have them in a comma like that but having found no cause to it. I think what’s the worst part is that this is the first case we’ve ever had of something like this. The doctors have contacted other hospitals around the world but none of them seem to have any history of this sort of case either.” 

Josh had stopped eating almost right after the nurse started talking. He turned his face away from her as he thanked her but she could still see his tears streaming down as his hope for his friends vanished. It broke the nurses heart but she knew that Josh wouldn’t rest easily until he at least knew that much. She left the room so Josh could be alone with himself. 

As soon as the nurse left Josh put what remained of his food back on the kart that was holding the tray. He had no appetite anymore.

Josh’s mom arrived at the hospital sooner than he expected with a change of cloths for him. She had all the paperwork filled out already and all he had left to do was change and he could leave. 

Josh finished dressing in less than a minute and was walking out the door when his mom noted the book she had brought him was still on the desk next to the lamp. Josh had completely forgotten about it. Didn’t want to remember the thing but now it was too late. He figured he would destroy it when he got home or later that night so he turned around and picked it up and walked silently with his mom to her car.

When Josh got home he walked to his room silently and casually but when he was in his room and the door was shut safely behind him Josh pulled out his tin trash can and threw the book inside as he went searching for some matches. When he found some in his desk drawer he lit one and was about ready to drop it onto the book and burn the damned thing back to hell when it started to faintly glow and a voice in his head began to speak.

“They are trapped inside. Destroy the book and they will die instantly. Pick it up and call their names they will hear you, as you hear me. You must guide them to me if they are to earn their freedom and save my world.”

As quickly as the voice had come it was gone, same with the glow. The voice that had spoken was just as mysterious as the book. It was males, rough and powerful yet calm. There were so many other ways Josh could describe the voice but possibly what frightened him the most about it was that no human could make sounds like whatever was talking to him. 

More so than ever Josh was tempted to burn the book as he went to light the match he remembered how the voice told him his friends were inside and they would die if he destroyed. He also remembered how it told him to pick up the book and call their names.

Would it work? Could they really hear him? Were they really trapped in some kind of alternate dimension inside this book? Or was he just insane. Josh thought to himself. It didn’t take him long to decide that it was worth a shot, so he put the matches away in his pocket and picked the book up then Called out his friends names one after another. At first nothing happened Josh waited a moment then quickly got angry and was about to throw the book back in the trash and really burn it this time when the voices of his friends rang in his head all saying his name at the same time.

Just like the voice had told him his friends were talking to him in his head but was that really them? Or was it some kind of cruel trick by the book or something. Josh started asking them some questions about their childhood together that only they would know. When they answered all his questions correctly Josh rejoiced regardless of where they were his friends were alive. Finally after confirming they were alive and who they say they are Josh told them of things after he woke up, told them how their in a coma at the hospital and how doctors can’t do a thing for them. 

When Josh finished talking it was they’re turn to tell him their side of the story how they woke up in a strange new world that so far seemed like earth but a bit more medieval. They told Josh about how they were now in different bodies and had abilities, Sam could split a leaf in two from over a hundred yards away, Dan seemed to have great mastery of swordsmanship despite having never even touched a sword until now, Ella could transform into animals, so far only a rabbit though, Andy could conjure a blaze of fire at will, and Shaun seemed to be able to manipulate light and had a great knowledge of certain herbs and alchemy. 

Josh sat on his bed unsure of if he went their voluntarily or if his legs became so weak that he used his last strength in them to get five feet to his bed as he just took in everything that they told him and connected all the dots.

This is what Josh got, He found a mysterious book at a shop that had a campaign in it, then he becomes possessed by the book and a strange light engulf the minds of his friends into the world of the book, finally he wakes up and his friends are in a coma, next a strange voice tells him he can communicate with his friends trapped inside this book and that they have to find him so they can earn their freedom.

Josh was now laying on his bed thinking things over still taking everything in, when he began to slowly realize something he had overlooked. Josh bolted upright as more pieces of this puzzle began fitting together. He cursed himself for being so ignorant of it at the time.

Josh remembered how he had read ahead of the book about 3 chapters about the characters in the story. He overlooked it so easily as his friends were describing their characters and almost entirely again as they described themselves becoming their characters. The characters inside the book were way too matching with his friends characters for it to be coincidence. 

First there was the party leader a human artificer named Tekaru, then there is another human a paladin named Allen, and an elf druid who called herself Sena, next was a creature similar to the elf an eladrin ranger known as Ian, finally a demon like creature who called himself Morthos a powerful warlock who has great control of fire. The characters in the book weren’t just identical to his friend’s characters they were his friends. Somehow that book was written about Sam, Dan, Ella, Andy, and Shaun as they were inside the book.

 

Everyone met up in the hall just outside their rooms it was early in the morning and the first rays of sunlight began shining in the window giving them just enough light to see each other faces; confirming they all heard Josh’s voice. 

“Josh if were all trapped inside this book then why didn’t you come in as well?”

“I’m not sure but I have been reading it a little bit and it only tells of you guys not me. Whatever is going on it involves you directly.”

“Does it say of anyway to bring us back?”

“I’m not sure I have not gotten very far in it but I will keep reading and tell you what I can. For now you guys just stay careful that’s an extremely dangerous world.”

And that was it, they could no longer here Josh the only sounds they heard now were of the birds chirping outside or the occasional last minute crickets. The inn keepers came out of their own room looking ready for the new day ahead of them, offering a small breakfast if they were to hit the road soon, or asked if they would stay another night. Everyone agreed for now it was best to stay put so they went down to the pub and sat around a table in the corner talking about what had just happened to them and what they just learned. 

In truth there wasn’t much to talk about so they almost kept completely silent while they’re breakfast was brought to them. They ate slowly enjoying their food but mostly to kill time waiting for Josh to talk to them again. But how long would that be, an hour, a week, more? They just sat around silently while the pub slowly filled up with some afternoon patrons waiting. At some point Sam had enough and said, “This is lame. Let’s do a quest or something?” 

Before any one could ask him what he was talking about Sam was already half way across the pub and stopped when he got to the other end at a board that had a bunch of obscure papers attached to it. Sam starred at the board for a moment until he ripped off one the papers and starred at the paper the whole time while he made his way back to the table.

Sam slammed the paper down on the table with a loud thud and said, “This is the perfect beginner’s quest.”  
Everyone looked at the paper which read;  
WANTED: Goblins 

Small band of goblins spotted near small village of “Oaken tree” in the caves just west.  
Reward: 20 gold 

On the bottom of the paper was a small drawing of an ugly humanoid creature with sharp crooked teeth and small yellow eyes. The portrait was just of the creatures head but they all recognized it as a goblin. They were very easy creatures to handle especially in small groups like this.

“No.” Shaun and Ella said at the same time. 

“I say yes. It beats sitting around doing nothing.” Andy said.

“Two against two; Dan it’s your call.” Sam said. 

Everyone was now turned to look at Dan who was sitting with his leg over his lap pretending like nothing was going on. Though Dan knew he couldn’t keep this up for much longer so before they started there arguments Dan bolted from his chair and called back “I have to run to the bathroom I will be back with your answer shortly.”

They all sighed but were forced to wait anyways so they argued trying to persuade one of them to join the other side of the argument unbalancing things to tip the scale in the others favor. It was to no avail neither side was giving in so ultimately it would be up to Dan to be the tie breaker. Unfortunately Dan was the most indecisive person alive. 

When Dan did come back everyone shut up immediately and turned to him to hear his decision. Dan took in a deep breath and with a new tone in his voice he said, “We will sleep here for one more night and if we hear nothing from Josh by the time this pub gets one customer the next day then we head out.” Andy and Sam smirked in their small victory as Ella and Shaun were about to yell at Dan for his decision when he continued talking in a louder voice making sure that if they said anything he would be heard loud and clear, “Both of you stop. We may be perfectly safe sitting here for a while but we have to pay for all our meals as well as every night we stay. Staying here is not a long term option eventually we are going to be completely broke. Besides that were all bored and we don’t know how long Josh will take to find us a way out of here. I know that I’m not the only one thinking this, but being here is a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

So let’s at least try out this world and these gifts of ours. A real adventure that’s what we have all been dreaming about that’s why we played this game it could be wonderful. I’m going to go stroll around and talk too people see if I can get a small map of the village or at least directions on how to get there.” Dan turned to Sam now and said, “Sam if you would lend me a few silver coins in case I do find a map maker and have to pay for one.”

Shaun and Ella looked at Sam then back to Dan and Shaun said, “Why would you ask Sam I’m the one holding the money remember?”

In answer Sam started jingling a small pouch filled with their coins. Before Shaun could ask how as he searched his empty sleeves for that very pouch Dan stepped in and said, “I saw him practice his pick pocketing on you shortly after he found out where you hid the money. It was just before we sat down to eat our first meal in here, and I said nothing because it did no real harm who had the money as well as it was a little amusing at the time.”

Dan left the Inn with his friends bickering about the whole pick pocketing deal. Dan was glad they had for the most part agreed with his plan at least for now. He knew that they’re would be a good chance of issues tomorrow if they heard nothing from Josh but for now no one could argue with his plan or his logic.

Then Dan thought to himself “that was a wonderful idea the old me would have never even made up the idea to run to the bathrooms for a minute to think. But this is the new me my name from here on out is not Dan I think from now on I would like to be called Allen.”

 

Allen returned to the Inn with a small map that detailed the land they were in. It was called Senoa. The town they were in was just north of some small forests and plains (where they first landed in this world). Further to the north was Oaken tree and just a little north east of that was the cave where the goblins were last seen hiding. The map showed another town west of Oaken tree which after that the map showed little more except the borders of the nearest lands. Despite the maps small size it was highly detailed as well Allen got it for free because the shop owners son made hundreds of maps all of different areas that he has been too some larger with more small figures worked into the drawing to get a general idea of the place others like the one Allen held.

“Well it’s not a big map but it’s highly detailed.” Allen said as he handed the map over to his friends. Sam took the map and folded out on the table for everyone to see. “Thank you Dan.” Sam said.

“Allen” He corrected. “While were here I want to be known only as Allen Strong sword.” 

The friends looked at each other briefly and shrugged, as Sam said, “alright Allen it is.” Then he opened up the map and laid it out on the table for everyone to see. 

They studied the map and noticed that where they were at was a nameless village though curious they paid no real attention to it they were to busy deciding their next move. They would have to go north either way to progress through these lands but from there was what they had had trouble deciding. The map was small but gave them a couple options, if they wanted too explore this world more to at least kill time they could go to Oaken tree and if they heard nothing from Josh then they could continue west and explore around more. However they all faced a real quest that was only a small detour as well offered them much excitement and challenge to truly test their new capabilities. 

There was a long silence between them while they kept starring at the map but they were really deciding on what they were going to do. It was Ella who spoke first with her idea. “Alright, alright I think we all have been thinking the same thing about the Goblins quest. I propose that we do attempt the quest.” Sam and Andy both raised their fists in victory but immediately lowered them when Ella continued, “However we will do this with the utmost caution and if any of us get too injured while on this quest were leaving right away. Is that understood?” She looked around at everyone and they slowly nodded their heads in agreement. 

Now that things were decided they still had almost the entire day to kill so Andy, Sam, and Allen decided they would go sparring with each other just for sport. Ella decided she would be referee and Shaun would be the medic. The friends set out just a mile or so outside of the town in an open grassy area where they could practice more freely without worrying about damaging the town or harming the citizens. 

Shaun and Ella stood about 50 yards back from the others while Dan, Ian, and Allen stood in a triangle formation approximately 15 yards away from each other. Allen had his sword unsheathed and his shield partially raised, Ian had his bow out and his hand behind him with a quiver held between his finger tips ready for quick use, and Andy stood perfectly still his eyes only half open. “Alright lest keep it clean and simple guys.” Ella said. She then shouted, “Ready 3, 2, 1 Begin!”

Before Ella fully finished the last word Andy’s eyes burst open with a glowing red intensity and a searing wall of red flames ignited in front of him. Ian responded by quickly shooting an arrow aimed at Andy’s head, and leaping backwards about 6 yards, already reaching for his next arrow. Allen begun charging after Ian right away and now held his shield to cover his head on his left side as he quickly covered the short distance from him and Ian.

Ella and Shaun rushed over to the other side of the field to see if Andy was hit by that arrow because those flames he summoned were still up. As they started to round the battlefield towards Andy’s side the flames suddenly died down as a bolt of dark energy lashes out from Andy’s position and lands right between Ian and Allen. The blast knocks them off their feet momentarily. Ella and Shaun stop rushing to Andy by now because they know that he’s alive and kicking. 

Ian had already recovered as Andy was now redirecting his next attack from Ian towards Allen. Allen had managed to get into a crouch and throw his shield up as a burst of intense flame overwhelmed him. Ian continued retreating back as Allen yelped in pain and started rolling around to eliminate the flames. As Ian and Andy then turned their attention towards each other getting ready to start up their next assault a flash of immense blinding white light forced them to stop and cover their eyes.

 

Ella was about to cast a spell to lash out at Andy right after he lit Allen on fire when Shaun threw his arm out in front of her and quickly said “shield your eyes!” Ella didn’t have time to argue about it as Andy raised his staff and brought it down with a silent but devastating white light. Even though Ella had done as instructed she could sense Shaun’s powerful spell trying to disorient her. When she felt the light had gone she uncovered her eyes and Shaun said “go use your frost breath to put out those flames while they are disoriented.” Ella did as she was told, running over to Allen who was still rolling around on fire she envisioned a cold blizzard forming in her lungs. She exhaled and her breath came out a frosty blue color almost immediately putting the flames out and even putting some small ice shards around Allen’s armor.

When Sam and Andy could see straight again Shaun was standing between them, and Ella was by Allen’s side as he engulfed himself in a small light healing his wounds. “I think to be more efficient in battle instead of fighting in a free for all we shall make a small team for better practice.” Andy and Ian were about to protest when Shaun continued, “This isn’t a competition of who’s the best it’s about surviving and teamwork. Now Ella and Andy you two will be facing Andy and Sam.”

It’s Ian!” Ian quickly protested about the mention of his old name (Sam). “My name is Ian it’s not Sam, at least while were here”

“Whatever.” Shaun said, “You and Andy are going to be on the same team against Allen and Ella.” Shaun the looked back to see if those two were doing alright then continued talking. “Is there any objections?” Ella looked at Allen who was already steady on his feet as he said, “I’ll be fine I was caught off guard and got hit with a nasty spell.” Ella was going to protest until Allen then said, “This is what practice is for. If I let my guard down against a real enemy especially a sorcerer I would have been dead. Now I can work on my weakness of fighting people at a distance and so can you.” Allen Winked at Ella giving her more reassurance. 

Though she wasn’t fully satisfied with this conclusion she decided not to argue about it seeing how they would end up fighting regardless of what she said now, besides Ella was pumped for action. Shaun stepped back and allowed the others to get into position. Now they stood 20 yards from each other Ella and Andy faced in front one side and Allen an Ian on the other. Shaun shouted at them to start and Ella dived over to her left in a roll just as a blast of flame hit the spot where she was standing. A strange surge came over Ella as she decided to summon a great force of energy and put a prison of wind around Andy. Andy Flinched in hesitation for a moment at her attack but nothing more than a breeze seemed to glide around him. Though now would be the perfect chance for a counter attack against Ella who was suddenly breathing heavily something told him there was more to this attack. There had to be if it made her so exhausted even for doing so little.

While Andy and Ella had their duel Ian quickly fired an arrow at Allen’s left shoulder where the armor had a small opening but his shield quickly covered the spot leaving the arrow protruding out of the shield. Ian quickly started backing away realizing he had fallen for that false opening and now given Allen the opportunity he needs to close most of the gap between them. Allen swung his sword in a small arc aimed towards the head attempting to hit Ian with the edge of his blade but Ian stopped moving back and ducked dodging the attack completely. 

Allen thinking he had caught Ian with another one of his false moves was starting to pull his left leg back and Kick Ian but Ian was way faster and saw the attack coming this time. As he was ducking Ian pulled out a small dagger from his belt sheath and waited for Allen to move his leg out of position to attempt a kick when he stabbed at Allen’s stomach. Allen quickly parried the attack with his shield bringing Ian’s and down to the ground. However Ian counted and used his body being shifted over to one side to spin around and bring his left leg up in a twisting arc landing his heel in Allen’s head.

The sudden blow to Allen’s head knocked him down as Ian ended his attack in a roll away from Allen. The finalization was sloppy but Ian’s attack worked perfectly as he got to his feet and started dashing away from Allen while he had the chance. Allen got up and started rubbing his head. “That was some impressive maneuver” Allen thought to himself. He knew Ian would already be gathering distance from him so he took a moment to assess Ella’s situation. 

Ella was just as confused as Andy was that her attack did nothing but put a gust of wind around him. She new Andy would soon prepare a nasty counter attack but she had nothing left up her arsenal, nothing that would help her she can’t do close range against Andy he would destroy her. Not to mention her ice breath would probably be countered with that dark blast he pulled off earlier, then Ella had an idea. She glanced over to Allen to see if she could get him to pull it off. 

As Allen started to turn his attention back to Ian because he knew Ian should be in position to fire an arrow by now he caught Ella’s glance and desperate look for a new strategy. Allen had no choice but to trust Ella now because instead of turning to face Ian he was now running after Andy, even shouted at him. Andy saw Ella starting to run away and was prepared to blast her with a spell when he heard Allen shouting his name. He turned to see the paladin running full force at him with his blade glowing. Allen immediately started to back up when the small breeze circling around him flared up into a violent typhoon. Andy could do nothing as the wind rapidly grew to a powerful force battering him around like a rag doll and throwing him onto his back on the ground. The wind was so strong that even the arrow Ian just shot was thrown way off its trajectory and completely missed Allen. 

Andy struggled to get on his feet as Allen was practically on top of him. Allen had his still glowing sword raised over his head and swung down with an arcing slash. Andy didn’t have enough time to dodge so he tried stopping Allan’s swing with his staff holding it out with both hands to try to stop the swing at Allan’s wrist but to no avail. The sword came down slicing through Alan’s light cloth and thick skin spraying hot blood on Allan as Andy fell down in pain. Allan stepped back and stood upright prepared to act to whatever Andy would pull out next.

Ian was so shocked to see Andy being suddenly tossed around by some force strong enough to even knock his arrow completely off it’s trajectory that he hardly noticed Ella was almost upon him. Ian started to run but as soon as he did Ella chanted something quickly and from the ground a bunch of thick thorns rose up and wrapped themselves around Ian’s feet entangling him. Ian quickly pulled out his daggers, placing his bow on the ground and cutting himself free but it was too late Ella was standing over him inhaling an enormous amount of breath then exhaling it in an icy chill. 

Ian covered his face with his arms but the chill still started numbing him and turning his skin paler. Ella knowing she had won her battle when she numbed Ian’s arms and maybe even other parts of his body with frost bite. She then stopped exhaling the chilly wind and turned in time to see Andy standing over Allen with his fingers pointed out at him ready to blast him starring at Ella.

 

Allen knew he had Andy when he made that cut on his chest but still he stood back cautiously. Andy remained still but Allen wasn’t taking chances until he could hear Andy whispering some kind of chant. Allen started to prepare an attack to stop Andy’s chanting but it was too late. As soon as Andy lifted his sword to strike again Andy turned off from his stomach and extended his hand out at Allan. 

Andy’s shadow quickly and violently turned into some kind of 4 legged monster that leaped at Allan. Allan quickly struck it down in 2 but the two halves then transformed into an exact copy of the monster. Allen cut those down with one swing from his now glowing sword but they quickly manifested into more copies as Allan started getting overrun. 

Andy recovered rather slowly from his spell while Allan thought with false creatures in his head. He know it wouldn’t last long so as soon as he recovered enough energy he blasted Allan with a bolt of dark energy like before but this time it hit and packed a serious punch. Though Allan’s armor protected him from the initial blast it was still strong enough to knock him out as Andy walked over to him and kept his fingers pointed. 

Noticing Allan wouldn’t get up anytime soon Andy glanced over to his other opponent Ella to see how she was doing against Ian. Ella was winded from what he could tell but stood over Ian victorious. Andy didn’t know if he could take her on in his state he felt he only had one spell left in him and so he kept it aimed at Allen while he starred down Ella. 

Andy and Ella stood over their defeated opponent now starring off with each other. Both of them too exhausted to do much more so the only chance they had at victory was for surrender. But what if they didn’t surrender, were they really going to make an extra effort to hurt their friends over a small victory? 

Shaun thought this over momentarily while he replayed the battle in his mind. At first things seemed harmless enough, they could get hurt of course but nothing lethal. Now however as he looked at Ella and Andy’s stand off to him it seemed as though something had possessed them, and that it was the best time to intervene and call it a draw. Shaun raised his staff with both arms and slammed it into the ground emitting a fierce white light just like before. 

“Well then that was an intense battle but it seems to have ended in a draw.” Shaun said. “Now if you two could please back off so I can heal our friends we can go back to town and grab a warm meal.” 

Ella and Andy came to their senses after shortly after there sight returned again. Though irritated they were too tired to argue about it. Shaun went over to Ian first to assess the degree of damage on him. His skin was blue with frost byte and he was numb but with a few seconds of chanting and a smaller radiant light Shaun’s spell quickly melted the coalescing ice and turned Ian’s skin back to its original shade. 

Ian was a bit shivery as he walked over to Ella and Andy and congratulated them on a great fight. Shaun used the same radiant light on Allen as his wounds started healing up and he even regained consciousness with a loud groan. Ian quickly ran over to help him to his feet. Though Allen was healed he was still very sore so Ian and Shaun both put an arm around his shoulder and they helped him walk.

No one said anything the whole walk and Allen managed to walk on his own once the town was within good sights. By the time the reached the Inn the sun was set and they were starving. All of them immediately pulled up a seat around the closest empty table and ordered food. Once it arrived Shaun spoke up about the battle.

“So anyone care too comment?” he said. 

“Comment on what?” Ian said as he gulped down some water then stuffed his face with an apple.

“Well how about everyone’s attitude during the fight. I knew you were serious about getting some practice but it doesn’t mean you have to mutilate each other. And at the end Andy, Ella why were you so serious about winning? This was just practice and need I remind you these are your friends you two were about to murder in cold blood.”

Everyone just starred at Shaun mostly in surprise. They don’t recall the fight being that intense. It was definitely tough but they weren’t out to kill each other. These looks made Shaun worry even more, did they really not see how serious they were back there. Shaun let it go for the time being remembering they had more pressing matters to discuss. “Well then moving on, Ian looks like tomorrows your call.” He said.

Ian finished chewing his food, drank some water then started talking. “Well I think today’s practice went well personally. Now we know we can at least take on a few goblins.” Ella was going to protest until Ian held his hand up and continued. “I know there are several differences between this world and ours even when it was just role playing we fought goblins before at level one and completely devastated them. Besides we all agreed if we heard nothing from Josh by tomorrow morning then we would at least try.” 

The friends ate their meal in silence then retired into there rooms. Everyone started packing their things getting ready for tomorrow just in case. After that they all just laid down in there beds tired waiting and to hear from their friend. Part of them hoped they would while another part didn’t. Sleep slowly crept up on them as they laid in there beds, listening for a sound that wouldn’t come.

 

As the Sun began to rise in the sky Ian took a deep breath in excitement, today was the start of his first real adventure. Everyone else stood side by side starring at the sun rise with Ian just a few steps ahead of them. Ian turned around to see if everyone was ready. They either smiled or nodded in indication of a “yes” Ian wasted no time and took the first step into his journey, as his friends soon followed.


	4. The First steps

Chapter Three: The First Steps

 

“In every hero’s journey, the most important action they can take is always their first steps into the journey itself. I sat at home reading about the first steps my friends took to begin there journey, if there was anything I could have told them at that time it would be; don’t.” 

Though the road they took too “Oaken tree” village was a known path and safe everyone kept there eyes open for bandits or any form of ambush, except Ian. Though he was in the lead and appeared to be focused the truth is that his head was in the clouds. He would be the last person to notice an ambush when he should be the first but he couldn’t help it.

Ian just walked ahead at his own pace thinking about the fight the other day. The way he was able to maneuver didn’t feel just natural to him; it felt like he had been practicing it for years until mastery. Then Ian began to wonder if the others had felt like this too. Everything he’s done in this world so far hasn’t felt just natural it’s felt like a routine he’s done practically everyday, how he slept, how he walked, and even how he views and judges peoples actions instantly. 

So wrapped up in his own thoughts Ian barley noticed when he was being spoken to all he caught was “Don’t you think so too Ian?” Ian didn’t even know who had said it he was caught completely by surprise and just turned around casually and asked, “I’m sorry could you repeat that?” to no one in particular.

Everyone just stopped walking and started laughing. Ian’s puzzled look made them laugh even hard until Shaun enlightened him, “We were talking about our course of actions when we got to the village and when you didn’t respond after your name being called like a dozen times, we decided to see what your reaction would be if we had made it sound like you were included on the conversation at all. Priceless as always and your look of puzzlement just now only added to the humor.”

Ian just sighed and said, “You guys are hopeless.” He continued walking forward in silence, while everyone just shrugged and did so as well. Soon enough they arrived at the village and it was Morthos who spoke up first. “We should go find who put out the bounty on the goblins and gather all in the Intel we can on the goblins before setting out.”

Everyone agreed with that plan and kept there eyes out for anyone in the village who could pay the fair to have a small band of goblins killed. However walking into this small town with the group they had got attention from everyone. They walked around trying to be inconspicuous but to no avail. 

Soon enough everyone was getting frustrated and it was Shaun who walked away from the group and went up to a few adults leaning against a small hut that seemed like someone’s home and said, “Pardon me gentlemen but me and my companions here would like to know who we may speak to, to gather information about your Goblin issue.?” 

The men just looked at Shaun puzzled then looked at each other until one of them said, “Look pal I don’t know what problem you’re talking about but if you have questions I would take them up with the mayor.” Then the men walked off without further explanation. 

Shaun walked back to the group saying, “Something is wrong. This village seems rather peaceful and old.” “So what’s wrong with that?” Allen asked. “Everything” Morthos said now joining the conversation. “I’ve noticed it as well for a town that’s being attacked by goblins frequently the townspeople seem rather at peace.”  
“Well those gentlemen told me to take any questions up with the mayor.” Shaun said. “So how about we go find where he lives and ask him about the goblins.”

They found the mayor’s house or rather estate was in the center of town just in next to the massive oak tree that was growing in the middle from where the town had gotten its name. It took them some trouble getting into the estate because the group was so awkward but the guards eventually allowed entry inside because of Allen and Shaun surely a paladin and artificer mean absolutely no harm to innocents. However they still had to relinquish they’re weapons to the guards until they left the estate. Though Morthos was completely hidden behind his cloak if he held out his hands the guards would notice so he ingeniously just placed the staff out a foot and let it drop into the guard’s hand.

The mayor’s estate wasn’t massive but it was still rather impressive for such a small town. The decor inside was cheap but it did a good job of creating a nice atmosphere inside. The mayor was a tall man a little round but not too bad for someone who lived in such a relaxing status. The mayors invited everyone into his office without much care of what they looked like and he told them his name was Charles.

Shaun and Morthos suspicion grew even more at the sight of Charles good personality and general care freeness. It wasn’t that it was a bad thing but it shouldn’t be like that if there was trouble with any creatures raiding the town. 

“So then what can I do for travelers such as yourselves?” Charles asked. 

“Well sir we heard that you had an issue with some goblins raiding your town and we’ve come to offer our services in this endeavor.” Ian said.

The look on Charles face gave everyone the information they needed but they let him say it anyways. “I’m sorry to disappoint you but our small town here hasn’t seen goblins or even trouble for that matter in centuries. In fact as far as I know there haven’t been any goblins around here for just as long.” 

While the mayor was talking Ian was searching through his clothes and bags to see if he could find the wanted poster from the Inn but it wasn’t anywhere on him. “It’s gone!” Ian said. The wanted poster for the goblins I don’t have it anymore.” Everyone then started searching their stuff as well but to no avail. The wanted poster was gone completely. 

“Is there something wrong” Charles asked. 

“Yes” Ian said. “We had a wanted poster for goblins that we picked up the Inn south of here in the small village.

Charles just gave Ian a puzzled look then said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you further lad but there is no village south of ours. There’s only the forest.” The friends looked at each other with worry, then immediately left the mayors estate without another word. They grabbed their weapons back from the guards trying there best to hold in their frustration until they finally got back to the back end of the town from where they entered.

“Alright I think it’s best if me and Ian went back ourselves because we are fastest.” Sena said. “We will run back to the village and just grab another poster. We should be back by nightfall at the latest. Just wait here for our return please.” With that Sena and Ian took off running at their full pace. She was right they would be fastest, those two moved about five times as fast as their walking pace. They should be back in a few hours.

Sena and Ian kept to the same exact path they took when walking because there wasn’t really any other roads to take but they started noticing something was wrong with this road. It seemed much less worn in the further they traveled down it. Eventually they saw the forest path and the open plains that they stayed in when they first arrived in that world.

That’s when Ian and Sena started panicking. Not only should they have arrived at the town by now but from where they were standing they had passed it. The two ran back towards the village this time looking out for the spot where they were fighting just the other day. Surely there would be at least some scorch marks in the ground from Mortho’s flame attacks.

It took them a few minutes of searching the general area of where they believed to be the approximate location to their battle ground to actually spot some scorch marks on the ground. Once Ian and Sena stopped to examine the ground they could confirm this was the spot of their first training practice but the village which would have been an easy spot from there was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t just gone… it was like it was never there in the first place. 

When Sena and Ian returned Allen was the first to speak up, “We have another problem.” He said. “After you two left I began searching for my map I got back at the town for reference but couldn’t find it. All of us practically striped naked searching for it but just like the poster it was gone as well, not only that but Shaun also noticed that all of the money we spent at the inn is back in the pouch.” 

Sena and Ian just sighed and Sena said, “It’s gone. The entire village that was there has disappeared completely. Ian and I only noticed this because first we followed the road we took and it led straight into the forest at the end, then we searched for the area where we battled. The signs of Morthos attacks were evident and other marks we left in the ground but there was no village.”

For several minutes everyone just stood there silent. Eventually it was Ian who spoke up first, “Alright I don’t know what’s going on but our quest remains the same. We’ll camp in town for the night and at first light we go to those caves in the west. Whatever we find there should at least provide us with some answers. Besides if there’s no goblins then it’s just a cave worst creature that could possibly be living there is a bear and if so then we move on.” 

The group found a secluded alley in the town and slept there. After the last place they didn’t fully trust inns right now. Morthos took the first watch for a couple hours, and then Sena, and so on until the sun rose and everyone got an equal amount of sleep. What ever they found in those caves now would be the next step into the journey, now they had nothing to go back to and could only move forward and discover the mysteries of this land.

 

Ian and Sena approached the cave entrance cautiously, listening intently for any noises inside. It was broad day light outside but they made sure to go around the sides so they couldn’t be seen approaching from inside. After only a moment of waiting Sena and Ian could hear the sounds of creatures talking, it was muffled but there was definitely something in there. Ian walked closer to the entrance in utter silence and poked his head in to look inside.

The cave started out with a wide dark path that led into a much larger area. Within this area were five small and ugly green creatures. They were all wearing light leather armor and carrying short swords. One of them however looked slightly bigger than the others and held a javelin in its other hand. 

Ian knew these creatures were goblins right away and noticed by there lack of size and equipment they were the weakest amongst their race. Ian signaled for Sena too look inside too and while she did that Ian quietly strode away from the cave to report to Allen, Morthos and Tekaru. Sena followed shortly after Ian and they discussed their battle plan.

 

The goblins stood around the cave quietly doing their normal patrol routine of this top level. As they were beginning to head down the tunnel to report that there was nothing unusual an arrow coming out of the other end of the cave soared past one of the goblins and hit another one in the back of his head. The goblins fell that got hit with the arrow fell dead immediately and the others; startled turned around to see a massive human clad in heavy armor with a broad sword and wooden shield charging right at them. 

 

Allen took the head of the group with Ian right behind him, then Mortho’s and Sena and Tekaru at the back side by side. The caves first passage was wide enough for them to go side by side but they ultimately decided this formation was better. Ian stopped everyone and waited until he had a clear shot of one of the goblins until he allowed Allen to draw his sword and relinquish what little subtlety he had. Ian released his arrow and that was the signal for Allen to charge the goblins. 

Allen charged straight at the goblins as fast as he could with his sword ready to parry and blows and his shield held a little high to block any projectiles. The goblins were too startled to start moving until Allen was already upon them and with one swing he had beheaded a goblin. The last three left had gathered their bearings by then and two of them were backing away from Allen as the third was trying getting behind Allen to try and get a more favorable position.

The two that went to one side of Allen had their javelins in their main hands and were getting in position to throw them when vines and thorns violently sprouted from the ground wrapping around their bodies and arms preventing them from throwing the javelins. Then the Goblin who had maneuvered himself behind Allen prepared to strike when and arrow caught him in the neck and he fell over twitching and writhing with pain bleeding to death. As the last two goblins quickly freed themselves from the tangle of the vines they saw there other enemies emerging form the shadows of the caves entrance tunnel. 

Both retreat outside and further down the caves were blocked for the two goblins, they quickly assessed that the paladin would be an easier opponent and threw there javelins at him. However only one of the goblins javelins came close to it’s target as the other goblin who was in the middle of his toss immediately caught on fire hindering his attack making the javelin completely miss the paladin. The other Javelin was right on target for Allen’s head. 

Allen didn’t have enough time to move aside but instead of the javelin running through his skull it deflected off of an invisible wall and fell to the ground. Allen was momentarily stunned as was the goblin until he realized the small white light emitting from his friends and he knew it was Tekaru’s doing. The goblin however recovered from his shock faster than Allen and was charging straight at him. Ian and Mortho’s were hesitant in doing any attacks because Allen was partially in front of the goblin possibly as the goblin had wanted. 

Allen parried the goblins strikes realizing the creature was trying to hit him so much as it was trying to get around him. Allen kept up with the goblins sword play allowing it to get around him and when the creature was in the position it wanted, for the briefest moments it hesitated its next attack to make sure that it could turn and run. It was in that moment of slightest hesitation that Allen took the opportunity to bash the goblins face with his shield and then decapitate it with his sword as it staggered back from the surprising blow. 

Everyone was now standing in the cave area, Ian was picking his arrows back from the dead goblins and everyone else was just in partial awe. Within a minute or so they had completely destroyed a small band of goblins. Though they knew it was because not only had they gotten a surprise round off on them but also that the goblins were probably the lowest ranks they rejoiced in having done so well in their first encounter. 

Once Ian had gathered his arrows back the group searched the goblins for any treasures they might have. The goblins only had there armor and weapons but the group decided that it might be worth it later so they striped the goblins of the leather armor and short swords and put them off into a neat pile to come get when they came back. 

While his friends did that Ian stood starring down the long dark passage going further into these caves then Ian said, “You know I can’t be certain but I think there’s an entrance to a dungeon down here everyone.” 

 

Everyone cautiously went down the cave tunnel with Allen and Tekaru both Carrying torches to help light the way. They encountered no traps of any sort but the tunnel it’s self had a deep decent to slope until flattening out again after about 20 minutes of a slow paced walk. The group stopped in front of massive double doors with some writing in goblin tongue that translated to: Dark miester shackled at underlow. 

None of them knew exactly what it meant exactly but after a few minutes of discussing it they decided that Dark Miester was some kind of sorcerer and under low was the bottom of the dungeon. Then Allen pushed against the doors with all his might. At first nothing then the loud sound of rock grinding against rock echoed throughout the tunnel as the doors started opening revealing the dungeon’s short hallway.

With the doors open everyone could see into the dungeon hall, it was a little dark but the hall wasn’t long and it spread immediately to the left and to the right. Still weary of traps the group walked slowly down the hallway and observed both paths. Each path was the same distance and with the same lighting from torches still burning. 

Ian and Sena both walked soundless to both sides peaking there heads slowly around the corner and listening intently for any noise. It was Sena who caught the sounds of footsteps approaching from further down the left path. The group hugged the wall with their backs, just at the turn of the path as the footsteps approached. From the sounds of it there were only two but they decided it best to ambush them when they turned the corner. 

As the two goblins turned the corner they stopped in total surprise by the massive human clad in plate armor standing just on the other side. Neither goblin had time to react before the paladin grabbed both of them by there heads, turned around and tossed them right into a group of fearsome warriors. One of the goblins was sent flying right at Ian as he was already in pose wielding a short sword aimed for the goblins throat. While the other goblin was hurled at Tekaru who had his staff posed to smack the goblin like it was a baseball. 

The goblin flew right into Ian causing him to stumble back but his dagger slipped right into its throat killing it instantly. As the next goblin got within range of Tekaru he swung his staff as hard as he could; smacking the goblin in the head, knocking it off course. Though that goblin wasn’t dead it was sent sprawling harmlessly a good ten feet, and when it stopped and started to get on it’s feet a dark blast of energy hit it right in the chest throwing its back onto the ground. Sena approached it cautiously not sure if it was dead or not, but when she got close enough she could see the goblins eyes were open and pure white. “Doesn’t get much deader than that”, Sena thought to herself.

Ian had already pushed the goblin off of him and started cleaning up its blood as the other took care of the last one. “Well then that was easy enough” Ian said. “I propose we take a small lunch break in the first hall this way we can see any other patrol’s coming and take quick cover behind the massive doors if necessary.”

No one argued the logic they were all too hungry at that point. Although it had only been about an hour or two since they started the quest, they had worked up in appetite from the last two encounters. And though none of them said they were all thinking the same thing that it’s so much more different from when they were fantasizing about raiding a dungeon. They would make their characters go through almost entire dungeons without taking time to rest but trying that now would likely end up getting them killed. 

 

The group pressed on throughout the first level of the dungeon. They met nothing but goblins in this first level and always in small groups. They never got another surprise round like before off but not all of the battles were difficult either. A couple times one of them would get a serious injury but Tekaru would heal them up right away. Despite having an adept healer they decided he should save his strength only on big wounds otherwise when they got cuts or gash they just bandaged themselves up after the encounter using there first aid kits. 

They found no treasures or traps on the first level but they still approached everything with utmost caution. After there fifth encounter with another small group of goblins they found a long stairway leading down to a darker path. The group memorized the layout of the first level and realized that after five encounters they must have completely cleared it of goblins because they literally searched every path and what few rooms there were. The first level only had about six different rooms, four of them were sleeping chambers for the goblins, and the other two was food storage and a kitchen. Putting all of these things together the group decided to take a rest at the top of the stairs and gain there strength back before going further down. 

After about ten minutes of resting everyone got up and Allen took the lead as always and was about to light up his torch to light the way Ian stopped him then said, “I think I see some light further down.”

Allen Couldn’t see anything but darkness and looked back to the others to see if they saw more when Sena confirmed Ian’s suspicions that there was light further down the path.

When the group emerged from the dark path into the lighted hallway ahead they could see several decayed small bones lying around the next torch lit hall. The bones were from goblins but none of the friends could figure out what had killed them in the first place. They approached the end of the hall with the utmost caution and waited until Ian and Sena could confirm they heard or sensed nothing directly around the corner.

Around the corner the friends saw the path was cleared of goblin bones and had another path going to the right, while directly ahead at the end was what looked like a hollowed out dark hole in the wall. The torches illumination was lower down the path but all of them could see plainly a giant web around the hollowed out area with about 3 small figures wrapped in web caught in it.

As everyone else put the pieces together Sena shouted, “Above us!”

Everyone turned and looked up in time to see a gigantic Brown spider flying at them from the ceiling. Tekaru put up an invisible barrier between the spider and them, but as it impacted his shield he could feel his strength quickly draining. Morthos quickly blasted the spider with dark energy knocking it back and allowing Tekaru to drop the invisible barrier. 

Ian fired and arrow aimed for the beasts many eyes but it bent low immediately causing the arrow to graze across its back unharmed. Allen came at the spider shield raised and sword held high glowing white. The spider was more cunning and lifted its front two legs and putting its weight into smashed right through Allen’s shield and threw him on his back. 

Sena was to busy trying to help Tekaru to notice that the spider had advanced onto them trying to get the easy kill, and Ian couldn’t get a clear shot of it now with his friends in the way. The spider raised its front legs to go for the kill as Sena braced herself knowing Tekaru couldn’t throw up a barrier in his state. But nothing happened.

Sena starred at the spider it stood in place then slowly started backing away. Confusion swept over Sena until she heard Morthos say, “I can’t hold it for long. Allen do something.”

Allen was already on his feet with his sword held in both hands glowing white, he started hacking its legs off with great ferocity and soon the beast only had the right side of its legs, the left side was nothing more than stubs oozing red blood. Morthos fell to his knees and the spider shrieked in rage and pain, whatever spell he had keeping the monster at bay was done but the creature wasn’t going anywhere. Or so they thought, the spider was quickly positioning itself to use its right side legs to push off the wall and launch at Morthos. 

Allen was behind the beast and would be too slow to do anything anyways when an arrow flew into its eye soon followed by another and a third one in the head. After the third arrow the spider fell down dead. Ian was all the way at back the next hallway giving himself a better view of the spider. “Well if that wasn’t a boss I don’t know what is” Ian said. “I don’t think we have to worry about any more encounters either there’s another set of double doors down this hall possibly where the treasures are.”

No one responded to Ian though, they just slumped against the wall or lay on there backs in exhaustion. It was a tough fight they may have been able to clear through the first level of the dungeon with ease but caught off guard they quickly expended whatever pools of resource energy they had on fighting back that monstrous spider. And though none of them noticed at the time that spider was a much stronger and much cleverer creature than its type should be. 

When everyone recovered enough to carry on they talked about weather or not they should turn around and leave the dungeon now or continue and see what was beyond the doors. Eventually they decided to at least open them and peek what was behind them. When they got within ten feet of the doors Morthos stopped them saying, “hold up there is something massive something powerful behind these doors.” Then Mothos took the lead and with almost no effort pushed the perfectly black doors open. 

The doors opened up to reveal a purple illuminant room with a coffin in the middle. The friends stood starring at the room trying to figure where the source of light was coming from. Morthos took one step into the room and BOOM! The coffin lid flew off and strangely enough didn’t land didn’t hover in the air it just seemed to disappear as the friends stood perfectly still not sure what to do. 

A figure started rising out of the coffin when Josh’s voice boomed into their heads yelling, “Run! You need to get out of there right now!” That sudden shock of Josh’s voice is all they needed to turn around and get moving. The started at a fast walk noticing that at some point the torches on the walls of the dungeon had turned into green flames. 

They had gotten just past the dead spider when they noticed the green torches were slowly going out behind them, this caused them to now run at full pace. When they got up the stairs and onto the first level of the dungeon they could see that the torches were green here as well. The friends quickly navigated the dungeon bets they knew how this time without any caution towards traps as the green torches ahead of them were already out. Racing through the first level of the dungeon the friends didn’t slow down, didn’t even look back as they found themselves just escaping the darkening dungeon into the cave that led them there. 

Ian dared to look behind them now that they were inside the cave and regretted it right away. Behind them were dozens of glowing red eyes and outlines of small mouth with several tiny sharp teeth. As soon as the friends were out of the cave it collapsed in on itself burying whatever dark secrets lay inside. 

It was night time outside and though the friends were exhausted and breathing heavily they cheered, happy to be out of that nightmare dungeon. Mortho’s never did tell them what he truly felt beyond those doors, and Ian decided not to talk about those eerie red glowing figured he saw behind them. Some things were just better left unsaid. 

 

After a few months the friends had traveled around the land doing various quests mostly just small ones where they wouldn’t be in too much danger but as they grew more confident from doing these quests with minimal damage they decided to try something more challenging. Within these last few months they changed a lot and became completely familiar with their new bodies and talents and growing stronger every day. They all decided to use their new names as well when introducing themselves.

When the group got into another new town they immediately split up searching for places where they might find knowledge about a dangerous quest for them to test themselves with. Ella and Shaun decided to check the inns for quest boards and Morthos would check around the shadiest parts of the town, leaving Ian and Allen to talk to the townsfolk. After several hours of searching they met up at the entrance of town as they agreed before to share their knew knowledge with the others. Everyone accept Morthos was present when Allen showed up several minutes after the others. 

They all waited for half an hour for Morthos but when he didn’t show up yet apparently still busy looking they decided to start sharing information. “So then who wants to start?” Ian asked looking around at everyone.

“I checked with the town monks to see if they were having any monster issues or reports of any kidnapping stuff that might be related to a ritual of any sort but they had nothing.” Allen said.

“Me and Sena searched through every inn top to bottom even asking some of the patrons about a quest board but they had none around at all.” Tekaru said.

“I tried talking to the more rugged characters and traveler type people in both the taverns, and on the streets but none of them had heard of any monsters or anything for miles around. As far as I could gather this place has been peacefully for generations, I am not sure there is anything for us here.” Ian said.

“That is correct, here there is nothing for us.” Morthos called out to them form several feet away. He approached them casually still keeping most of himself hidden behind the cloaks of his robes. He was also accompanied by a smaller, dirty, and twitchy man. Morthos waited until he was stopped a few feet form everyone to start talking again. “This whole town and environment has been cleared of monsters years ago, most slaughtered and the rest led underground; underground in a hidden dungeon.

A dungeon filled with potentially strong monsters a perfect test for us I think. Twitchy here will guide us to this dungeon for a silver coin.” Morthos then gestured to the man standing next to him who was always looking over his shoulders. 

The friends all looked at each other then back to the paranoid man. “So where is this dungeon exactly and how do you know of its location?” Ian asked suspiciously.

The man looked over his shoulder one more time then looked at Ian and said, “Lets just say its my job to know certain things; things like this for example. As for where its at, well you give me that silver coin now and I’ll tell you, or I guide you to it directly and get that coin either way works for me.”

Ian sighed then reluctantly said, “Alright fine lead us to the entrance of this dungeon and you’ll get your pay.” And with that they all set off.

 

The twitchy un-named man led the group deep into the woods several miles off from the town and kept going into the forest as night slowly came and the woods grew ever darker. Despite this darkness the man still managed to guide them through the forest but at a much slower rate. Eventually they came to an open area of the forest with much less trees around and the man said, “Well you can’t see it from her but if you walk 20 paces ahead you will find the stairs leading down to the dungeon. And with that I will take my coin and leave.”

Only Morthos could see very well in this much darkness and even he struggled to see the steps. After concentrating in the darkness for a few moments he finally said, “Yes I see it in the distance there faintly, it’s mostly covered with brush and leaves but there is definitely an unnatural structure there.”

Tekaru pulled out a small coin bag and fished around inside it until he felt out a silver coin. He felts its weight in his hand to confirm it was indeed silver and not copper or gold, when he was content he tossed it over to the man and put the bag of coins back in his sleeve. The un-named man caught the coin carefully and then ran off, disappearing in the woods. After the man was gone they talked for a few minutes and decide to rest that night and traverse the dungeon in the morning. 

Sena transformed into her newest form that of a wolf and sniffed around the ground in search of some small animals they could eat. While the others put some distance between the dungeon entrance and themselves and made camp; just in case some tray monsters came out while they slept. After finishing setting up a small camp set they built a fire and Sena came back carrying, three small animals in her mouth.

The food wasn’t much but it would be enough for them to fill their stomachs before bed and they could just hunt proper food when the sun was up then go in the dungeon. As Morthos helped them start a small fire to cook the animals and Ian skinned them, Sena stayed in her wolf form and ate half of one of the small animals raw then lay down close to the fire and closed her eyes. The others went to sleep shortly after eating their meals as well.

 

The next morning after breakfast which was made up of an antelope and some berries the group headed back towards the dungeon. Sena stayed in her wolf form, she was highly keen on her animal forms and seemed to enjoy traveling in them more than her elf form. The month she learned how to transform into a bird she spent countless hours flying around barley coming down for food or rest. 

They approached carefully looking out for any signs of danger. When they were all content that the entrance to the dungeon was free of any visible traps they continued. Slowly walking down the old stone stairs covered with moss and small plant roots, even the walls inside were covered with vines and ivy. 

The dungeon entrance was a long straight walk and when the group could no longer see a few feet ahead of them they pulled out a couple of torches. Allen held the first torch in one hand taking the lead while Morthos had the second torch behind them watching their backs. They continued walking for several minutes straight until they finally came to a massive wooden door with some old writing on it. The text was of common dialect but was very old and a little hard to read.

Allen held the torch close to the door so he could read out loud to everyone, “To any brave adventures out there looking for, treasure, a challenge, or to make a name of yourself from conquering a dungeon; look elsewhere! In here I have trapped many monsters that were terrorizing a nearby town; but that was many, many years ago. By now the monsters are all dead, and there bones likely dust. This place is nothing more than a tomb for dead demons by now, and you who are reading this have wasted your time in coming here.”

“Is that all there is?” Ian asked, sounding very irritated.

“As far as I can see, yes” Allen replied.

“I still say it’s worth a look” Morthos said. “Everyone stand aside I’m just gone use a minor fire spell to blow this open.”

Everyone took several steps backwards making sure to keep a good distance form the door and themselves. They all knew that when it came to Morthos there was no such thing as a “Minor” spell. 

Morthos held out his right hand, his palm facing the door and began to concentrate. After a minute a small red glow appeared from Morthos extended hand and faster than the blink of an eye a ball of fire the size of Allen’s torso shot out at the door. 

The fire ball hit the door dead center and for a moment it just sat there until violently rebounding from the door heading straight back at its caster. Morthos threw his arms up to defend himself but Allen was much faster to react and threw himself between Morthos and the fireball. Allen had his shield raised in front of him as the fireball smacked it and exploded. The blast forced Allen to take a step back but otherwise he was completely unharmed.

Everyone else looked around at each other to make sure everyone was alright. When they were all content that no one was harmed they turned to look at Morthos who just shrugged as if it was an accident; which technically it was considering he didn’t know the door was protected by a strong magic. The only person not giving Morthos a scolding look was Tekaru who was studying the door closely. Desperate to throw the scolding attention off himself Morthos called out, “You have something over there?”

“Yes” Tekaru said keeping his attention on the door. “Did anyone else notice that something strange appeared on the door after the fireball hit it? As well as the fact that the fireball didn’t just rebound right away instead the door seemed to absorb its magic for a moment before responding.”

No one else really did notice much except the fireball violently returning to hit Morthos but now they were all intrigued and gathered around the door behind Tekaru; who held his hands up towards the door and was focusing. Tekaru was silently pushing magic into the door slowly so as to not cause an unwanted rebound of magic. Slowly small writing started to glow on the door written in between the first text. Allen read this new writing out loud, “To the wizard or sorcerer who ahs solved my door’s riddle I give you congratulations and permission to enter my dungeon. Simple speak the phrase ‘by the order of the light I command you to open’ While touching the door. Inside you will find a great treasure of knowledge, but be warned I have set up many traps and turned many powerful monsters to stone who will return to their normal selves once the door is opened and they will guard this spring of knowledge with their lives.”

 

It only took a second for all of them to make a decision as Tekaru put his hands on the door and said, “By the order of the light I command you to open.” The doors then slowly parted ways opening up a large expansive room with little light. Morthos stepped forward and shot out dozens of little fireballs from hid hands that ignited a set of torches on the walls. With the torches lit the room was much more visible and the group could see several snake statues around the room as well as a few larger serpent like creatures wielding bows. 

The group slowly walked into the expansive room when Ian said, “Stop!” They all turned around to look at him; his eyes were darting around the room hastily. “Remember what the door said, that the monsters were turned into statues and would now begin coming to life. Well I don’t think these statues in here are just decoration.”

Everyone turned back around and focused their attention on the statues now and realized some of them were gone. Soon the other statues began springing to life as well and dozens of large snakes and a few serpent like creatures with arms and bows came at them.


	5. Dungeon

Chapter Four: Dungeon

 

Ian was the first to react shooting an arrow into one of the snakes slivering across the ground towards them in the head. Then he turned his attentions to the larger snakes with bows. Allen and Sena put themselves in front of the group to act as the first line of defense. They easily took care of the snakes coming after them Allen either cutting them down with one swing of his sword or pushing several of the snakes back with his shield. Sena would simply bat any striking snakes away from her with a swift swipe of her claws or bite down on any snake that got too close her.  
While Allen and Sena dealt with the smaller snakes, Ian and Morthos were taking on the larger snakes with bows also known as the Yaun-ti; and Tekaru kept an invisible rectangular standing shield between the Yaun-ti and Sena, and Allen so they wouldn’t be hit as easily by an arrow while distracted by the other snakes.   
Morthos and Ian were evenly matched with the Yaun-ti and were held in a perfect standstill. Morthos would cast endless bolts of fire aimed at two of the Yaun-ti so they couldn’t counterattack while dodging his attacks; and Ian was in an archer duel with the last Yaun-ti both sides shooting down each others arrows before they could hit there marks. The two forces stayed in stalemate for a while until Allen and Sena killed off the snakes and helped turn the tide of the battle in their favor.   
Sena helped Ian take on his opponent while Allen, with Morthos’s cover fire got close to the other two Yaun-ti and together they made quick work of them. Allen cut one of the Yaun-ti in half while Morthos got the time necessary to cast a small red beam into the other Yaun-ti’s head, killing it instantly. And as Sena wrested around with the last remain Yaun-ti, Ian came up to it with his knife and stabbed it in the throat. It wriggled around gasping for air for a minute until falling dead.   
After the battle, the group took some time to rest and have Tekaru heal their wounds, which only Sena and Morthos got any at all and those were only minor scratches or bites. Tekaru felt glad to be of some greater use outside of battle; he felt completely useless during fights which for the most part were true. The only thing useful Tekaru could do in a fight was put up small shields which wouldn’t last forever, though helpful they were he couldn’t do any more until the battle was over. And though his friends greatly enjoyed his medical talents outside of battles he knew that if he didn’t find knew knowledge soon, then he would become nothing more than a heavy bandage. 

The group spent several more hours traversing the dungeons many floors, all going down. They encountered several traps and monsters of moderate difficulties. And though all of these things were challenging they were not overly difficult like they were hoping. Although given the time it was taking them to get through the dungeon and there full party they couldn’t expect too much. Soon enough the group suspected that this dungeon was only intended for a group of 3 or less and after they ate their third meal of the day they decided to go back to a well guarded area to rest.   
They took turns sleeping with Tekaru taking the first watch for a few hours since he was the least exhausted of them all. After a few hours Tekaru shifted with Ian who then took watch for a couple more hours then gave the last bit to Sena. Finally the group was fully rested and ready to continue their quest in the dungeon. Tekaru had pulled out the map he had been making of the dungeon since they entered it and led them quickly down to the areas still left unchecked. They encountered mostly traps which were easy enough to spot and only one more group of monsters which was actually just a bunch of spiders that Morthos quickly burned into nothingness.   
Morthos’s powerful fire spells were always nice because they took care of most enemies rather fast but they drained him greatly so he tried to pace himself; except with the spiders he seemed to enjoy going all out against them. And eventually the group came to the last darkened area on the map which was five floors down in the dungeon. On the fifth level of the dungeon there was only a long marble stoned path with dark waters on both sides of it. At the end of the path was a large door marble door the same as the path, and carefully walking down the path the group could see that the place was lit up by glowing stalactites from the ceiling, it was rather beautiful to behold.  
Slowly the group walked down the path half of their attention on the beautiful stalactites, the other half on the door. As they got about halfway down the path Ian caught something in the corner of his eye coming from the water. He cautiously approached it and looked carefully he couldn’t see anything except for some small ripples on the surface.   
After a brief moment Ian realized the danger and reflexively jumped back shouting to the group, “There something in the water!” But before Ian even finished his sentence a massive Serpent rose out of the water towering above them. And just as Ian landed back on his feat the serpent struck at him. The massive serpent moved so fast that Ian barley had enough time to dive onto his side as it missed him by less than an inch.   
“It’s a Basilisk, Ian get over here now!” Allen shouted at Ian. But Ian didn’t have enough time to get back on his feet before the basilisk struck at him again. It moved just as fast as before and Ian prepared for the worst when suddenly it hit something invisible in front of him and shook its head, giving Ian enough time to get on his feet and run over to his friends’ side. The shield Tekaru threw up in anticipation had saved Ian but he felt it drain his strength considerably. The Basilisk was very powerful and he knew they would have trouble dealing with it.   
After recovering form the shock of hitting the invisible shield, the basilisk turned its attention to the group and struck at Allen first. Allen raised his shield to defend himself but was knocked off his feet and thrown several feet back. Sena quickly jumped into action and transformed into a speedy small bird flying up to the basilisks eye distracting it while Allen recovered. The basilisk took a second to notice Sena, but when it did it kept trying to eat her alive, but she was to fats for it and kept dodging its strikes then flying back in front of its eyes making it more frustrated with the fact it could not get her.   
While Sena distracted the beast Ian tried shooting it with arrows but soon found out that they would barley penetrate its skin and the thing hardly seemed to notice. So Ian waited until it opened its mouth again and released an arrow that flew straight into its tongue. The basilisk hissed and turned its attention towards Ian and the others. Then it raised its lower body all the way too the tail out of the water and swung at across the path at the group.   
Everyone barley had enough time to dive over the massive tail. Morthos stood up slowly and carefully still concentrating on finishing his spell. Sena could not longer keep the basilisk distracted and it turned its complete attention back towards the group. Morthos just finished gathering in enough power to launch his attack before it came after them. He raised both his hands out in front of him his palms facing the basilisk and unleashed a massive wave of fire that completely engulfed the serpent.  
Sena barley moved out of the way in time to avoid the flames; she retreated back towards her friends and shape shifted into her elf form. For a moment the group rejoiced in victory after Morthos attack, but soon the basilisk shook off the flames, steam hissing and rising all around its body, and it looked even madder then ever. Tekaru helped Morthos back to his feet as he had fallen to his knees after that last attack.  
Morthos was breathing heavily and slowly got to his feet as he asked, “Did I kill it?”   
“If it had not been completely soaked in water just moments before attacking us then yeah that would have gotten it.” Tekaru replied.  
“Damnit, I don’t know any other spells as it is and that was my strongest one. I’ve got one more smaller spell at best then I’m out.”  
The basilisk finished recoiling from the attack and turned its attention towards Morthos and Tekaru. Then it struck at them covering the large gap between them with great speed. Tekaru had just enough time to throw his hands out in front of him and put up a barrier between the basilisk and themselves.   
The basilisk hit the shield hard and recoiled back briefly before striking at Morthos and Tekaru again. As the basilisk smashed at the shield Tekaru could feel his strength quickly draining from its powerful attacks he would not be able to hold it up much longer. Ian and Sena tried attacking the basilisk from halfway down its body but it paid them no attention as they would barley even scratch it.   
While Allen ran further down the path to the end of the basilisk and raised his sword up above his head then with one powerful swing he cut off five feet from the end of the basilisk’s tail. The basilisk screeched with a deafening roar and turned its head quickly towards Allen. It began pulling the rest of its tail back and submerged it in the water then turned around to go after Allen.   
As the basilisk turned its attention towards Allen, Morthos saw the last opportunity he would get on the giant monster. Quickly before the basilisk got too far, Morthos ran to its side and used the last bit of energy he had to quickly fire a bolt of dark energy aimed right for its left eye. The basilisk too distracted with Allen didn’t see the attack coming and it hit its target perfectly.   
The basilisk let out another screech of pain, turned its attention back to Morthos who was now lying on the path unconscious. Before it could attack though Ian fired an arrow at its remaining good eye; and the basilisk had enough time to close its eye as the arrow hit its eyelid and fell to the ground harmlessly. The basilisk hissed at Ian as he tried to fire a second arrow at its eye, then it retreated into the water.   
Sena took the opportunity to wrap her arms under Morthos and carefully drag him off the path and out of immediate danger. Afterwards she checked to see if he was still breathing; he was. And Tekaru rushed over to help him as Sena stood guard in her wolf form incase the basilisk reemerged from the water and came after them.   
Allen and Ian grouped back to back in the middle of path both starring at the water for any signs of the basilisk. The waters and the entire floor were disturbingly calm, and silent. For a moment Allen and Ian thought the basilisk was dead but they didn’t lower their guard.  
Then without warning the basilisk launched from out of the waters on Allen’s side and soared right at them. Allen, who saw the it coming was just able to dive to the ground and dodge the basilisks giant body but Ian was not as quick and got hit hard in the shoulder; being knocked to the ground. The basilisk retreated back into the water as Ian let out a grunt of pain and said, “err, it dislocated my shoulder I think my arm might also be broken.”  
“Go over there with the others and have Sena put your shoulder back into place, I will handle it from here.”  
Ian could not argue, he was barley able to even scratch the creature before, now without his arm he would just get in the way, everything was up to Allen now. As Ian quickly ran back to Sena, Morthos, and Tekaru, Allen got down on one knee and silently began praying. After Allen finished praying his sword began to glow a brilliant golden light.  
Allen stood facing the side of the water the basilisk had retreated into, put his shield down, and wielded his now glowing blade with both hands. Allen stood in a low crouch his sword held by his head the end of it pointing in front of him. Allen stood starring at the waters unmoving, calmly waiting for the opportunity that he knew would inevitably come.   
Then after a couple minutes the basilisk flew out of the water behind Allen, trying the same tactic as before. Ian and Sena watched in utter surprise and astonishment as Allen swiftly turned around and sliced the basilisk’s stomach with one clean cut. The basilisk recoiled in pain and landed half on the path and half into the water.  
Allen kept his sword in front of him as he slowly approached the basilisks head. And then the basilisk made one last strike at Allen trying to swallow him whole. The basilisk managed to sink one of its teeth deep into Allen’s left shoulder as Allen raised his sword up through the top of its mouth and into its brain. Allen held the sword in the basilisk brain until he knew it was dead; then he pulled his blade out and fell backwards onto his but. Allen sat there right in front of the dead basilisks head just breathing heavily as he turned to look at his friends. “Well this was certainly the challenge we all wanted.” Allen said between breaths.

Shortly after Morthos up the group continued to the door; Allen was no longer wearing his heavy armor, he had taken it off so Tekaru could heal his wound and though he stopped the bleeding and neutralized the poison, Allen’s left shoulder was still broken. Sena was the least injured or exhausted of everyone so she took the head of the group, but none of them expected to encounter any more problems now.  
When they got to the door they tried opening it by traditional means only once. After that had failed Tekaru placed his hand on the door willed some of his magic into it and said, “By the order of the light I command you to open” and just as before with the entrance to the dungeon these doors too slowly opened up.   
The doors revealed a massive library filled with perfectly well stocked book shelves. There were several orbs of white light placed all around the library glowing endlessly, always keeping the place well lit. After some exploring around the library, the group discovered a massive alchemy lab in the very back, stock piled with an almost endless supply of reagents, bottles, vials and everything an alchemist would need. Tekaru was completely overwhelmed by everything and couldn’t help but almost feel as if someone or something wanted him to be find the place; it was after all exactly what he was looking for so that he would become a greater asset to the group.   
After exploring around the library the group stopped for a food break as Tekaru pulled out several books and skimmed over there contents. “This place was practically built for me” Tekaru said.  
“You certainly look like you’re happy.” Sena said.  
“I could spend a long time here learning. In fact Morthos there might even be some books here you could learn some new stuff about as well.”  
“Yeah I wouldn’t mind some new spells myself right now.” Morthos replied. “I’ve only got like three fire spells and that clearly just isn’t going to kill it anymore. I mean if we run into anything even slightly immune to fire like that basilisk then im practically useless.”  
“That’s not true, if you hadn’t blinded the basilisk eye with that flame attack back there I don’t think we would have made it through, you may not have been able to scorch your way through him like all your previous enemies but your actions helped us greatly today.” Ian said  
“Even so it couldn’t hurt for me to have, some kind of new power.”  
“Well what if you decided to stay here with me for a few months” Tekaru suggested.   
“Were not staying here for a few months” Sena said quickly.  
“Not ‘We’ me; and maybe Morthos if he wants” Tekaru responded. “This is a perfect opportunity for me to learn so much. There are things in here that would take me years of learning on my own or even several different tutors. So I decided that for a few months at least I’m going to live here and learn all about alchemy and perhaps other useful stuff.  
And before any of you object, I decided this almost the moment we opened those doors. Honestly I’m the weakest one here, and though I may be the medic most of my healing could have been done just as easily by Sena or Allen. Hell even Ian has some basic medical supplies for emergency that he can use.   
You guys will be fine without me for a short period of time; you just need to avoid places like these. Which is fine we have to learn sooner or later that we can’t win them all and some battles simply have to be ran away from. Besides with all the monsters cleared from here and its magical locks I will be fine, and if Morthos stays he would make a good body, more or less.”  
Before anyone could object Morthos spoke up saying, “You know it’s actually not too bad of a plan. I wouldn’t mind a few months of training on my own, and if you guys can’t survive three months without us then you may need some training of your own.”  
“But were a team” Sena interjected. “Even if we can survive without each other we do things together.”   
“Sena, this is their decision.” Ian said. “If they want to take some time away from us to learn than what’s the harm in it? We can go exploring around while we wait for them to finish some small training.”  
The group argued on and on for a couple hours about this plan but reluctantly they ultimately all agreed to it. And so they spent one last day together and decided in three months time, Sena, Allen, and Ian would meet them back up inside the library. 

The next day after their friends had left, Morthos and Tekaru immediately set out searching the library for books that might give them new spells. The library was stocked with lore on monsters more than anything as well as legends from all sorts of lands. After a full day of searching through the library Morthos and Tekaru found nothing for either of them, the knowledge was useful that they found but they didn’t bother reading al of it because they didn’t need it; maybe one day they would return to read more.   
It wasn’t until halfway through the next day f searching through all the books that Tekaru found some books about basic alchemy and some minor “light” spells. After that Tekaru abandoned Morthos to study on his own and began spending most of his time in the alchemy lab. Morthos was annoyed but still eh searched for anything that might be useful to him.   
After many more days of searching on his own, Morthos was about to call it quits when finally he spotted a black book on the top of the last shelf he was searching. It was practically hidden and Morthos had to pull out a small ladder just to climb to the top and pull it down. The book was titled “Demons” but it was written in demonic language which fortunately Morthos could read perfectly.  
It didn’t much reading for Morthos to realize this is exactly what he needed. If he could make a pact with a strong demon then he would gain substantial powers in no time. Slowly and carefully Morthos read over the book, through each demon, trying to find the one that was just right for him. After completing the book he had picked out several candidates for himself and was now deciding on which one he should make a pact with.   
All of the demons were powerful; all seemed to hold good positions, but one in particular seemed to stand out to him the most. A demon named Baelfien, in its picture are was nothing more than sketchy shadow with 3 red eyes where the head would be. There was no summoning description in the book for Morthos so instead he found some lesser demon in the book to summon so he would be able to command that one to get him the information he required to summon Baelfien.  
Morthos borrowed some ingredients from the alchemy lab while Tekaru slept and went outside of the library and onto the marble path to summon a lesser demon. After setting up a summoning circle using the blood of a sheep (kept in a jar from the alchemy lab) Morthos summoned a small imp like demon. As soon as the demon was summoned Morthos shot out a small bolt of flame that grazed the demons cheek and said, “Now before you go and try something stupid just remember that I can kill you in a second and if I don’t like what’s coming out of your mouth that’s exactly what I will do, understand?”  
The small imp like demon gulped loudly and nodded its head. “Good now then first question, do you know of a demon named Baelfien?”  
“Yes my lord.”  
“Good next question, who do you know that has the spell to summon him. And don’t try to make a deal with me for it because I know an underling like you is lucky enough to even know the name of such a powerful demon.”  
The demon hesitated for a moment then said, “Actually my lord everyone in hell knows who Baelfien is. He made sure of that when he became the new king of hell.”   
Morthos was caught by surprise by this new information he hadn’t known that this, Baelfien was actually the king of hell; if he could strike a deal with him he would become the most powerful warlock alive. Morthos was going to say something but the demon looked like it still had more to say so he gestured for it to continue.  
“Unfortunately my lord someone like Baelfien can only be summoned if he accepts it. Acquiring the ritual itself could take me five months at least, and there’s no guarantee that he would beckon to your call.”  
Morthos thought this over for a few minutes until he said, “You have three months to get me that ritual. I will be summoning you once a month to check on your progress and if you have not found it by the third time I summon you then I will execute you and find another who can get me what I want.” Then Morthos snapped his fingers and sent the demon back to hell to fulfill its task. 

On the day of the third and final summon for the demon Morthos was irritated, the creature was making little progress and he didn’t want to have to wait any longer his friends would return for him and Tekaru any day now and he hade made no progress on becoming stronger. When Morthos had set up the summoning circle and cast the incantation to summon the imp, for a moment nothing happened. Morthos wondered if the imp was killed while searching for this information; which would explain why it didn’t come, because it had no choice when he summoned it.  
As Morthos began to wash away the summoning circle it suddenly sprang to life glowing a bright red light before a tall shadowy figure with three eyes appeared before him. Morthos took a step back startled; standing before him was Baelfien. “You have been searching for me to make a pact, I understand” Baelfien said.  
It took Morthos a moment to find his words as he said, “Yes that is correct. My name is-”  
“Oh I know very well who you are young Warlock” Baelfien interrupted. “And fortunately for you I am interested in making a contract with you. But I will not give you all my power at once; gradually I will give you more and more power as you earn it.”  
Morthos thought about his options briefly. He could always find another powerful demon and get all of their power at once, but he didn’t have that much time. Baelfien was the strongest demon currently alive and this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity. “It is a deal then.”   
Then Morthos and Baelfien made small cuts on their wrists and locked their hands together letting their blood mix into each others bodies. And in a demonic language Morthos said, “I hereby accept you into me as my soul is yours and accept your powers as it is now mine.”  
While simultaneously Baelfien said, “I hereby give you my powers in acceptance of your soul as it is now mine.”  
After the ritual Morthos blacked out and woke up several hours later, the summoning circle was gone replaced with a black scorch mark. Morthos could already feel he was stronger and somehow knew many new spells. To him it was like these spells were something he had been studying his whole life and they had become second nature. He now had the ability to summon shadowy demons to his aid (which five at a time was his limit), fire red lightning which was far superior to his fire but more consuming, and create a black shield of energy to protect himself from attacks.  
Morthos played around with his new spells for a couple of days until the others returned. Tekaru was a little reluctant to go but decided he had learned quite enough for the time being. He had also found a bag of holding which he placed in several large books, a lot of Alchemy supplies and countless potions which all had different effects.

Baelfien returned to his throne room in the pit of hell only to find his master sitting on his throne casually waiting for him. “Is it done has the Warlock agreed to become your apprentice?”   
“In time Master” Baelfien replied. “Soon enough we will have Morthos, and then nothing can stop you.”  
The shadowy figure on Baelfien’s throne said nothing more just simply disappeared leaving the lord of hell alone.

Finally the group set out from the library and as they continued their adventures they remained blissfully unaware of the greatest danger to them all. A danger not of the body or the mind, but of the heart. And unknowingly to the friends, this danger was already consuming them.


	6. Allies

Chapter Five: Allies

 

It has been three years since the small group of friends were sucked into a world of their greatest imaginations, transformed into the characters of what used to be a game. The small group had made a large name of themselves in the land of Senoa since then; conquering many dungeons, slaying several evil monsters including destroying an entire village of ogres. They had come so far and changed so much, but only one seemed almost unchanged by all of this.

 

Sena stood outside the balcony of the second story Inn she and her friends were staying at, starring up into the summer sky. The sky had few clouds in it and she could see a beautiful view of the stars. She stayed transfixed on the sky until Ian had come out to join her.

“There’s a party going on downstairs what are you doing out here all by yourself?” Ian asked sincerely.

“It’s been three years since we arrived in this world. Three long years and we still haven’t found a single clue on getting us back home.”

The two stood there in silence for several minutes watching the sky until Ian spoke again. “So what it’s only been a few years, and in that short time we have accomplished a lot. I mean we’ve done like a dozen quests, became significantly stronger, and were pretty much hero’s in this land. You can’t tell me it hasn’t been fun or everything you expected.”

“But it hasn’t been fun and it’s nothing like I expected it would be. I enjoyed it when it was a game and we were rolling dice for attacks instead of fighting for our lives searching endlessly for clues to get home.”

Then Sena polymorphed herself into a bird and flew away into the night sky before Ian could protest. Ian turned to go back down stairs to the party but stopped when he noticed for the first time a figure cloaked in black robes with a hood thrown over his head. Even with his extreme vision Ian couldn’t see through the pure darkness of the cloaks hood, in fact he couldn’t even register that the person held any warmth with his inferred vision. 

“It’s time we meet.” The cloaked figure said in a rough male voice. “You have become strong and will become stronger on this next step in your journey. Travel west to the mountains of Skaier.”

Then the cloaked figure simply vanished right in front of Ian’s eyes. Ian turned his head to look into the west. The mountain range was about a week’s trip but Ian wasn’t even sure why he was considering this. He didn’t even know this mysterious person telling him to go to the mountains. It could be a trap, no it probably was a trap surely they have made powerful enemies even so Ian couldn’t let go of his thirst for adventure and challenge. The hard part would be convincing everyone else to join him into a possible death trap concocted by a dark magical figure all in the hopes for another adventure.

 

The group of friends stood at the foot of the mountains confident in whatever challenge they might face ahead. None of them were fully sure that they could trust the dark figure but the fact that it appeared in front of all of them with the exact same message gave them belief that it was important they followed through. Even if it was a trap from a powerful enemy they could gain much knowledge from it.

Sena polymorphed into her white wolf form almost immediately after they set out. She had become very fond of that form of hers. It was powerful, fast, and if she so chose it could become massive even bigger than a forest bear. She kept it in a regular form though for faster reflexes but being able to change her size instantaneously was useful. Even though she couldn’t cats spells while polymorphed she could transform at will into any other animal and over there travels she’s gained about a dozen other animal forms.

Allen had become a fierce and noble paladin; he constantly needed armor repair or new armor and shield but seemed to be the most valuable of the team. He could be surrounded by multiple enemies now and not worry even those able to break through his armor soon found there efforts wasted because the most damage they could ever inflict was some scratches and bruises while they were picked off by his allies. Even then Allen could heal himself in mid battle even if only from light wounds, and when heavily outnumbered Allen cast special magic to strengthen his ally’s lighter armor making it as resistant as his plate armor was.

As for Tekaru and Morthos those two were on the roads to becoming titans of magic. Tekarus main weakness were that certain number of his spells required components or rituals but that never stopped him, with his help his friends would recover from any wound, could fight for days without getting tired, and he always had powerful resistances to any form of magic that came at him or his friends. And Morthos being the most devastating of all of them, Conjuring up massive fire spells to burn enemies to a crisp, or blasting them into oblivion with dark magic, even conjuring up lesser demons to fight for him.

Indeed the friends had become incredibly powerful in the last three years alone. Though they are strong individually there greatest strength comes from fighting as one body. Allen serves as the shield protecting them from harm; Tekaru is the arm holding the shield enduring the weight of keeping up defenses. Sena and Ian are like the legs, moving the body swiftly throughout the battlefield, and Morthos was the arm wielding the weapon that destroyed any foe or obstacle in there path. 

Shako observed this group as they grew and together transformed into a hero, a hero that Shako needed, that this world needed. And though the group didn’t realize how they functioned as one unit to any opponent those friends were like a small army. Shako decided that it was time for them to meet, time for them to fulfill their destinies.

 

Sena took the lead of the group following up the mountain trail. With her increased senses in wolf form she would be able to detect any creatures waiting to ambush them; she had saved them from dozens before with her animal forms. Different environments called for different animals to detect ambushes sometimes even her small bird was the best but her main was the wolf, which she now had in its bigger stature.

They encountered nothing while traversing the path up the mountains. Sure there were creatures around but none hostile. The path they took led them further and further up into the mountains, though the path was jagged, rough and sometimes had steep slopes it was simple. The path stopped in front of a large rock wall that rose several hundred feet into the air. After a several minutes of discussing what to do they decided up was the only way left to go.

Sena transformed into a bird and simply flew up the rock wall and Ian Climbed up it with ease, but he went slowly so the others could see his hand and foot holdings. Once he was up he tossed down the rope and Tekaru tied it around his waist to go first, however he was so light that Sena and Ian simply just pulled him right on up. Next was Morthos and though he was much heavier than Tekaru he partially climbed the wall and partially was hoisted up it. Finally up was Allen, he tied the rope around his whole body best he could and it took all four of the others pulling the rope on both sides to get him up.

Once up the friends took some time to rest and eat before continuing on. The road in front of them though was far different from what they would expect. It was perfectly straight almost like a bridge and had sharp jagged rocks on the sides that could impale you if you fell on them. The road led them to a circular almost arena type area in the mountains. And further back is a black cave that formed like the mouth of a massive creature with sharp pointed teeth. 

Emerging from this cave were two dragonoid creatures that walked on their legs like humans, both carrying a unique sword and shield in one of their hands. Both of them had red tinted scales and were clad in full body plate armor that resembled there scales. The two dragonborn looked fierce and massive, but despite there heavy weight they charged straight at the group with immense speed. 

Allen reacted first charging head on at the dragonborn to the right. While Allen clashed with the one on the right Morthos quickly summoned a dark red spear and hurled it at the other dragonborn. The spear aimed for the creature’s leg to hinder its momentum if nothing else but the beast leapt high in the air still flying towards the group. 

Ian launched an arrow at the dragonborn once it was at the peak of it’s jump so it couldn’t have any chance to dodge instead it threw up it’s shield, blocking the arrow. The dragonborn was still in full momentum soon to come crashing down on everyone when at the last second Tekaru threw up an invisible barrier. The beast crashed into the barrier hard and landed on its back as Morthos shot a blast of fire at it.

The dragonborn quickly followed up its fall by rolling back on to its feet and countering the blast of fire with its icy breath. And Ian launched another arrow aimed for its eye but it ducked just dodging the arrow and it waved its hand around as lightning started to crackle around its wrist.

 

Allen parried blows with the dragonborn on equal par and blocked or dodged any other incoming attacks from the creature. The two were on equal ground until the dragonborn slammed it’s shield against Allens so hard it pushed him back a couple steps giving the dragonborn the chance it need to sweep his legs. The dragonborn went in for the kill when it was tackled by a massive dark brown bear. 

The dragonborn got its leg under Sena and used their momentum to throw her back as he tumbled to the ground. The dragonborn quickly got back to its feet as Allen came up to it and kicked its shield out of its hand. The dragonborn responded by blasting crimson flames from its mouth forcing Allen to leap away.

The dragonborn went for its shield when a prison of wind encased it. The dragonborn new that trying to move out of this calm wind would result in the spells activation and could violently throw it off the cliff so it stood there calmly planning a counter attack against the spellcaster.

 

A massive bolt of lightning shot out from the dragonborns hand aimed right at Ian. Tekaru threw up another invisible shield just in time to block the lightning as it exploded violently in the air around Ian. The dragonborn quickly turned its attention to Morthos who was still chanting for a powerful spell. The dragonborn inhaled and was ready to blast him with its icy breath attack when purple flames erupted between them.

 

Sena was back in her elf form and keeping the spell she cast on the dragonborn in focus to keep its movement restricted. Allen kept his distance from the dragonborn knowing that Sena’s spell could harm him as well. Neither of them could hear the quite incantation of the dragonborn but when it was about ready to launch its attack on Sena a purple flame erupted in front of it. 

A deep strong voice echoed in all of their heads “Enough!” it said.

Everyone immediately stopped and the flames started to recede into the dark cave where they had originated from. And when the flames were all gone a small black dragon walked out of the cave. Its body was riddled with small long strips of revealed flesh from around its scales, they seemed to resemble numerous scars in fact. Its eyes were gray and empty suggesting the dragon was possibly even blind.

“My name is Shako” a voice sounded off in the group’s heads. “I’m sorry for the deception but I had to test you once more to see if you were prepared enough for your next steps.”

The two dragonborn walked calmly to Shako’s side and stood there like nothing had happened. “These two are my guards and highly trained warriors” Shako said. “Besting them is no easy task and even though it was only for a moment it was enough to know you can hold your own against them”

Morthos snorted and said “We had them at our mercy and would have finished the job had you not interfered so don’t act all that tough”

The two dragonborn growled at the remark but did not move otherwise. As Shako’s lip curled in what appeared to be a smirk he spoke again, “Ah yes at their current weakened state they would eventually be overcome by all of you but on this battle field all they really had to do was throw you off the edge of the cliff. Besides that I have limited their flow of magic powers so that they wouldn’t be at their full potential.”

“Who are you anyways and why don’t you speak to us normally?” Tekaru asked.

A long pause then “I am unable to speak in any tongue because my throat was damaged a long time ago, the price for my survival none the less. As for who I am well I am your guide, your bridge, and now I will be your personal mentor.”

“What the hell do you mean by any of that?” Morthos yelled angrily. “Enough riddles tell us your purpose before we get bored of you and decide to kill you off.”

Allen walked over to Morthos and placed a hand on his shoulder then said “Relax friend. You need not be so aggravated.”

“Relax!?” Morthos practically shouted. “How can we relax or hell even lower our guard when not five minutes ago this black dragons guards attacked us as soon as we got up here. Not to mention if something this strong can invade our minds this easily without any apparent stress on it who’s not to say it can cast us into a nightmare realm long enough for its guards to come over and chop our heads off. Tekaru can’t do anything to stop mental attacks so I’m the only one who can guard us against that kind of thing and you want me to relax!”

Morthos stopped yelling for a moment and was about to continue when the clattering sound of weapons made him stop and look over. The dragonborn had tossed their swords and shields over to Allen’s feet and slowly walked backwards until they were at the mouth of the cave then stopped.

“You are right warlock if I wanted to make such an attack against you it would not be much trouble for me to do so but as I’m sure you noticed I had many opportunities to kill you. For example I could have assaulted you while you were carrying one another up with that rope but I didn’t. Anyways what I mean by I am your guide is that I have been the one guiding you through your journeys every step of the way. Do you remember three years ago when you first arrived here, that first village you stumbled upon? That place was of my magic all of it an illusion in your heads, all to get you started on your ultimate quest.”

So then you were watching over us ever since we arrived here, and now you plan on training us to make us stronger?” Tekaru asked.

“Yes” shako replied.

“What about that other part about you being our connection? Were you the one who brought us here in the first place?” 

A long silence then, “I am not the one who did, that magic is far beyond me. Truthfully I am not sure what brought you here, I believe it was the magic of these very lands however. I will explain all of that shortly but for now what I mean by I am your connection is that the reason you are able to communicate with your friend, the one you call Josh is through my powers. I will explain the rest over dinner if you come inside.”

Shako said nothing more and walked into the pitch black cave, his guards followed directly behind. The friends stood around wondering what they should do. It was Allen who stepped up first bravely walking into the unknown possible dangers of the cave. Everyone else followed shortly behind him.

Once inside everyone saw that the cave was actually well lit with floating flames no most likely a spell of Shako’s. They also noticed that the cave only blocked vision peering into the cave and when looking out they could see perfectly fine. They didn’t understand why put up so much trouble putting a magic barrier in front of the cave so anyone trying to peer inside would see only darkness, the cave literally was just a circular cave with dirt and some jagged edges on the inside fairly standard. 

“I apologize but I do not actually keep any of my food in the top level here, you may sit wherever and eat from your rations.” Shako said. And so he waited for everyone to make themselves comfortable enough to pull out their food and start eating.

“I suppose I shall start at the beginning.” Shako said. “In order to gain your trust and to help you understand more I will tell you my story first. When I was still a young hatchling, necromancers had come to the swamp where I and my small clan lived. They intended to capture us and turn our bodies and souls into their own puppets however we fought back with stronger force than they expected. The result was that both sides suffered heavy casualties and ultimately they only captured a couple of us. I was too young to fight but I could tell we were losing the battle so I had no choice but to flee.

In my retreat a necromancer had quickly blocked my path. He had thought he could easily subdue me with psychic powers but soon found that my mind was far different from any other hatchlings and we were locked in a mental fight. Though I was stronger he had more endurance and time wasn’t on my side then another black dragon only a young adolescent one had come to my rescue. She was injured severely and used the last of her strength to spit a blast of acid at the necromancer. Unexpectedly the necromancer’s body was so weak and thin that part of the acid had immediately burned through him and hit my eyes. 

I have been blind ever since. But because of that dragon I was able to escape safely even while I was blind. Unfortunately my troubles didn’t end there even though I was out of harms way I was too young to fend for myself and even though I quickly adapted to the blindness I had to leave the safety of the swamps if I was to establish any form of life for myself. 

I soon learned how to mentally control small animals to come to me where I would usually break their necks and eat them because I was too young to spit acid yet. And though I found no other hardships on my traveling I faced an even bigger problem, where was my place in this world? 

Should I go back to the swamps, would there be other dragons there, would they even accept me? These questions plagued my mind for years while loneliness followed me like a shadow. Soon even more dangerous thoughts filled me. The worst of all was why do I bother surviving, what is my purpose?

I never stopped traveling the world searching for these answers, whenever I came upon an encampment of other dragons I was quickly chased away or they tried to kill me and because of the necromancers I didn’t feel like any other non dragon race would accept me nor I them. One day I found it was the winter solstice, food was scarce and so was shelter. My strength was there to survive but my heart was gone empty and the will to live on slowly slipped out of me until he found me.

A dragon that I couldn’t see but his presence was immense. It was like a glorious warm light had fallen over me and he took pity on me, saved me. His name was Bahamut and I am his legacy. 

Of course back then I had no idea he was a god. Bahamut became my friend, my father, my master. He taught me everything and loved me, and though vengeance for what happened to me as a youngling still burned in my heart Bahamut slowly took that away the only thing id been holding onto, the reason I had lived and not even known it was for vengeance. But Bahamut knew that was all a lie if I truly wanted vengeance I would have survived no matter the costs and hunted the necromancers down.

Bahamut saw something in me that I didn’t know even existed. As I’m sure by now you know that black dragons are generally the evilest of us all. Often times we sell our souls for power but in doing so lose ourselves to the very power we sought. 

Bahamut said he saw in me great power, and great kindness. That trait is extraordinarily rare in black dragons and perhaps why he took me on as his apprentice. Regardless of why after a great deal of time and training Bahamut one day called me to his temple where he told me a tale about a light that defeated this unknown darkness but the light in doing so became part of the darkness and forever cast its shadow. ‘My shadow is growing strong and will soon one day consume me’ He said. ‘When that time comes I will disappear and heroes of the light destined to save us all will arrive in this world. I will cast a spell on you so that you know when and where they arrive. I must ask you to look over them and allow them to grow on their own until the time you think they are ready to be trained for the final battle is at hand.’ 

After that Bahamut said nothing more to me and for the next several months nothing happened and then out of nowhere like Bahamut said a shadow had consumed him and attacked me. I tried to fight it but my efforts were in vain and so I had to flee with my body guards and left the great dragon city. I traveled for several years to find a place where I could train you when you arrived and when I finally discovered this cave you had arrived. 

I spent half my time guiding and watching over you the other half building this cave into a hidden training ground for you so that I may teach you everything I know and hopefully take you to your peak. I’m not entirely sure if your ready but I fear my future may be coming to end sooner than expected so I must train you while I still live.”

The group finished eating about halfway through Shako’s tale and was starring at him the whole time as he never moved in inch until finishing. Then he stood up and walked to the end of the cave facing the entrance and pushed in part of the stone like a secret panel. Soon deep rumbling noise sounded and a large door opened into the cave revealing a tunnel going down.

“That heroes is my tale and down there is where your training will precede for however long it takes you to master all that I have to teach. My body guards will stay up here at the cave entrance to guard it from intruders. Our fate is in your hands, I have nothing more I can do to earn your trust so as I put my faith in you I must ask you to do the same for me.”

 

As everyone carefully walked into the tunnel which was actually a staircase the rock door to the cave slowly slid back into place and for a moment everything was pitch black. 

“When we get to the bottom in about a minute you will see the caves natural ceiling lighting.” Shako said.

Shako was right after about another minute of walking down a green luminescent light appeared in front of everyone. They came out into a massive underground spring with thousands of little glowing green rocks that lit up the place in a brilliant spectrum. 

“If your blind then how can you tell that there are the lights glowing above us?” Sena asked.

“I can feel their magical energies” Shako said. “The spring was composed entirely of mountain waters from another time possibly when there was a lake running through here. This is where you will get your drinking water. And the path that is just around it will take us further into the underground haven where there will be a massive empty area for training. 

If you need to bath there is an opening that takes you around the mountain side and a direct trail to a river about a four hour walk so you will not have the chance to bath everyday no matter how filthy you get. I do however have rags and large buckets of fresh water from that same river so you can clean up your hands and faces before meals.

Other wise I have everything you will need for your training in here food is always easy to get here, and your artificer can repair the damage to any of your weapons for a long time until they eventually wear down beyond even his abilities to fix. And trust me I plan for that to happen.”


	7. Training

Chapter Six: Training

 

The groups Training under Shako was brutal and relentless. They started off fighting his body guards with their powers unrestrained and they proved to be more than they could handle even with their combined effort. They spent most of their time in the underground training room and were only allowed outside when they earned it. 

Sometimes their odor would be too much and Shako allowed them to go outside at night and clean up at the lake. And other times they would miss out on meals if they did too poorly during combat exorcise. The combat training wasn’t always physical either, Shako taught them how to defend themselves against mental attacks or mind invasion. 

 

Finally the day had come when the group was strong enough to make a stalemate with fighting the two dragonborn guardians. It was then that Shako had decided it was time for there next phase of training. Now they would fight the dragonborn guardians like before but with one less member of their team. They soon realized that having one les of them made a considerable difference in the fights. 

Sena was the first person pulled out of the group fights but she didn’t go untrained because of it. Shako had a specialized training regime for her; sometimes it would involve her meditating for the full day without food or water. Shako taught Sena what little he actually could about magic. 

Shako quickly realized that in order for Sena to truly learn she must go out into the wilderness all by herself so that she may discover herself with the animals, beasts, and spirits alike. And so she, and Shako found a dense forest filled with life, and nature, Shako made sure to teach her how to make a mental connection to him anytime she needed him all she had to do was call for help and reinforcements would arrive. 

While Sena was gone Shako continued studying the group to see ways best to train them next and who should be pulled out next. About a week after Shako let Sena leave to the wilderness he started noticing Morthos was starring at him. Though he could not visually see it he could sense Mortho’s eyes watching him a lot. 

“You do not fully trust me.” Shako said

“No.” Morthos replied.

“You are hiding something aren’t you something you don’t won’t me to know about.”

“The others may not be able to tell but your hiding something as well dragon.”

“I sense great confusion in you. Is there something you would like to ask me?”

“It’s of no concern of yours. Now leave me be dragon so I may rest.” 

 

Morthos stopped starring at Shako after their conversation but that didn’t help the uneasiness Shako felt about Morthos. For the time being though Shako had put that thinking aside he had a mission to do and couldn’t get clouded by rash feelings. And after some long thinking Shako ultimately decided that it was best Morthos be pulled out last for individual training. 

A month passed and as promised Shako had left Sena completely alone never to call on her before then unless she needed help. Sena was making good progress and requested a few more months out there so she may further her progress. Shako agreed to this and left her alone, and then he passed the message onto the group.

By the time Sena had returned feeling satisfied with her time in the wilderness and having achieved a much greater strength she was allowed back into the groups fighting regime and swapped out with Tekaru. It was a heavy blow to the team, Tekaru constantly provided healing, rejuvenation and shields to the battle so Sena had a big role to fill but with her training complete she filled it greatly. In fact she had provided the slight increase to strength they needed to bump up the constant losses to even ties.

The two dragonborn were elite not only skilled in magic, but highly strategic and their physical prowess was near unmatchable. Though Sena was a stronger fighting force and helped push the dragonborn back more by fighting with Allen on the front lines they found without Tekaru’s healing and rejuvenation spells they would have to end the battles quicker. Ian kept back with Morthos attacking from a distance more now that he didn’t have to occasionally help out on the front lines. This greatly helped his battle strategies.

 

Tekaru’s training with Shako started out immediately about mind defense techniques and endurance. Tekaru excelled at mind defense and was making steady progress about holding his spells for longer. Tekaru was great at defensive magic as well such as, reinforcing his ally’s armor severely or creating small barriers surrounding them so any attack will be greatly weakened in its initial blow or completely nullified. Shako had him work more on his barriers then healing because it’s easier to protect then it is to heal and more energy conservative. 

The next step in Tekarus training was alchemy and magical structures. The potions Tekaru brewed in his alchemy studies became very potent and useful in any situation. Some of his potions were made to help his allies and him by rejuvenating their strength just like his spells. Others were made to harm or hinder his enemies like one that if comes into contact with air will immediately explode taking out even a creature as large as an ogre. 

With Sena’s help Shako increased the potency of the herbs used in Tekaru’s Alchemy. Now Tekaru had an arsenal of healing potions and destruction potions. The potions were now so strong with so little necessary herbs the bottle sizes could be decreased and Shako taught him how to fashion any kind of wardrobe that would appear normal but have dozens of secret spots to hide his potions for quick and easy access for whenever needed. 

The final thing Shako had to teach Tekaru was to make the magical structures. Shako even admitted that he probably would not be using these very often and shouldn’t rely on them because they take a great deal of concentration as well as energy however knowing them is useful all the same. Within a month Tekaru had mastered the basics; which was all he really needed. 

Shako had him make a bridge across the lake waters where they drank from for Shako to walk across as his final test. If he had made the bridge to weak or too small Shako would fall in and contaminate the water. When the bridge was constructed and Tekaru gave the ok to cross and Shako took his time walking on it. The walk took Shako two full minutes when it should have only been 30 seconds but Tekaru stayed strong through it all but was feeling how much energy had been depleted because of it and his lesson was learned.

When Tekaru was all finished with his training he didn’t return to the group like Sena did in fact he stayed behind and could do just about whatever he pleased but he decided to work on his magical structures more to pass the time as well as make more potions and mix some of them to see the results. Sometimes Tekaru would have to go out and gather more herbs as Shako had instructed him where to find them. Other times Tekaru would just relax outside and enjoy the peace while it lasted.

Now Shako had gone through two of the five heroes advanced training and with the battle regime of Sena, Allen, Ian, and Morthos the group was at even wins with the dragonborn. They would win more than they would lose now. But this next choice would be the toughest on them yet. How will they fight without their leader?

Shako put Tekaru back into the group but took Ian out of it for his advanced training. For the first day Shako had Ian practice his acrobatics by taking him into a forest and making him run the whole day on the trees and if he ever touched the ground he would have to start over. If the branch broke under Ian’s weight he would have to start over.

As soon as Ian was in the woods and on the first tree training Shako immediately went back to the cave to watch how the group fought without their leader. To Shako’s surprise they did great. Even without Ian’s coordination they had learned how to fight together and had been fighting the dragonborn for so long they know all their tactics. It was time for Shako to enter the final phase of the first part of the training sessions.

When Ian returned at the end of the day, Shako had organized everyone during dinner to explain how the new training would workout. Because Ian was already a perfectly skilled archer as he’ll ever be and a wonderful commander Shako had nothing to train him but in sword or knife combat which was not his area. It was the same For Allen; Shako had nothing he could teach him. The only one left for Shako to teach was Morthos.

“You have all done greatly in this past several months but it’s time to change the training routine a bit.” Shako said. “From now on Tekaru and Sena you two will work together on whatever you see fit to do, I suggest working on your own individual combat weaknesses. As for Ian and Allen you two have only to learn sword techniques and unarmed combat. That’s where my guards come in to train you individually. Ian you will be paired with Akra to learn knife and sword proficiency. Allen you will be paired with Torinn to learn unarmed proficiency. As for you Morthos you will be with me training on the mountain top outside.”

 

The next day everyone got into their new groups as Morthos and Shako went up to the mountains, they took bags full of provisions; they were expected to be up there for sometime. Allen and Ian were hard at work practicing there offset skills. While Tekaru and Sena decided to practice mixing potions and herbs to see what the side effects were. 

Shako and Morthos arrived to a large area in the mountains where there was nothing but open sky, and rocks. Shako had Morthos unleash a torrent of his spells either in the air or at the rocks. The ones aimed at the rocks were fire spells and two of his spells were so hot he turned the rock into lava. Shako was overly impressed; summoning aside Morthos had mastered every known warlock combat spell. He knew then that Morthos not only was holding his spell power back during the combat regime but might have had a master teaching him. 

Though Shako still had his doubts about Morthos he knew that Morthos restrain of power in the combat regime was a good sign. Not only did he protect his allies from potential harm but he also showed no ill will of Shako’s guardians; with spell power that massive he could have overwhelmed either of them and done serious damage but he didn’t. Shako let out a small curve of his lips like it was a smile of relief.

“Well Morthos I must admit I am impressed.” Shako said. “You seem to not only mastered your spells but also know how to restrain yourself. Truthfully I only have one more thing to teach you are you ready?”

Morthos was tired and breathing heavily. With a cautious look Morthos nodded his head in agreement. He had to be prepared for anything at this point.

Instead of a physical attack though Shako made a mental assault against him; Morthos was caught off guard and immediately start feeling Shako invade his mind. Shako was searching through Morthos quickly gaining mental ground in Morthos’s head. He had to do something and fast or Shako would learn too much about him.

Morthos countered by throwing first a steel cage around Shakos mental invasion. As Shako was temporarily surprised and worked around that Morthos sent after him imaginary demons to assault Shako making him feel like they were eating away at his flesh. Shako countered with guards of light that looked like fairies. Finally Morthos summoned a wave of magma threatening to trick Shakos mind in thinking he was getting third degree burns all over his body; Shako had no choice but to retreat out of Morthos mind. 

Now it was Morthos turn; as soon as Shako was out of his mind Morthos used the opportunity to invade Shakos mind. Once inside everything was pitch black but Morthos immediately summoned a set of beats to cause chaos in shakos mind while he searched for the answers he wanted. First he summoned, a hydra with 6 heads, then 2 massive scorpions, then a raging flame beast, and finally an inferno behemoth a massive beast with the bull but about ten times larger and on fire. Morthos counterattack was in production and right as he was about to send out his summons to do their jobs a torrent of powerful skeletal dragons charged straight at him.

The dragons tore his summons apart and were soon coming after him. Morthos retreated out of Shakos mind and the two stood their starring at each other making sure they other wouldn’t try to invade the others mind again. Then out of nowhere in demon tongue Shako says, “Draw.”

“So then you can speak after all.” Morthos remarked. 

“It seems I truly have nothing to teach you then, very well done.” Shako continued speaking in demon tongue. “I’ll keep your secret you keep mine.”

“Done” Morthos replied. 

 

Despite having nothing to teach Morthos, Shako insisted that they stay up there for the duration of the week as he originally planned so that the others may get their training in uninterrupted. Shako also suggested that being stuck inside those caves for too long is bad for them anyways. And after the set time had passed Shako escorted Morthos back to the cave but didn’t return himself. It was time for him to prepare the final part of there training regime but for that he would need a little extra help.

It was another couple of months or so when Shako returned. Following behind him was a light purple colored, walking crystal. Its body looked humanoid only more jagged and see through. Its eyes glowed a dark purple light at times and its mouth remained perfectly closed.

The next creature looked like a small tree covered in dark green moss with only four limbs. Two of the limbs were its legs and the two are its arms. Closer inspection revealed that her limbs weren’t entirely bark or wood and suggested that was just a defensive spell. 

“As I’m sure you may have heard about in lore at times these two species are a Shardmind, and a Wilden. They are old allies of mine and will be helping me in your final phase of training.” Shako said. “Now that you are good enough to best my guardians in combat even with your forces divided it is time you faced an even number. I warn you now our goal will be your deaths take nothing lightly during these combat situations.”

The two dragonborn stepped in front ready for combat, Shako stood in the middle, and the Shardmind and Wilden shifted around between Shako’s side and the far back. The friends quickly took their positions already knowing that they would be fighting any moment now. And without warning a wave of acid shot over the dragonborns heads aimed directly for the center of the group; the battle had begun.

 

Allen and Sena had to dive out of the way while the others were pushed back. Tekaru was immediately frustrated knowing that he should have put up a barrier right away. His mistake not only costs the group to fall out of their position it also scattered them. They would be fighting one on one in a moment and Tekaru had to figure out who his opponent was.

The dragonborn charged after Sena and Allen as soon as they were apart from each other. The Wilden stretched its limbs in a flurry of long range attacks on Ian as he ducked and weaved around them just trying to get a decent shot in. And Shako stood unmoved facing Morthos, Tekaru guessed that they were locked in mental combat. That only left the Shardmind.

Tekaru looked around the room and quickly noticed the Shardmind wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Then he felt something was coming for him and threw up a small barrier around him. Just as the barrier came up dozens of small shards aimed at his chest and neck bounced off his invisible shield but he could feel the immense pressure from them; they would have torn right through him. 

Tekaru looked up as the barrage of crystal shards was soon to be ending. He saw the Shardmind’s head floating without a body and he realized that the Shardmind used all but the head for this attack so it would be able to go on for a long period of time if needed. Tekaru waited until the assault had finished to counterattack. He pulled out a small vile and tossed it up at the Shardmind’s head but aimed it for the ceiling so even if he missed the explosion would still go off.

The vile flew at the Shardmind and it quickly descended elevation as the vile broke on the ceiling causing a massive fire to erupt. The Shardmind had completely dodged the flames but that’s what Tekaru was planning on. As the Shardmind slowed its elevation speed he shot a surprise bolt of lightning from his other hand. The bolt of lightning was dead on course for the Shardmind when out of nowhere the same crystal shards used to attack Tekaru quickly formed up into a shield and blocked the lightning attack.

Tekaru was taken completely by surprise, that was his only offensive spell and even though it wasn’t as strong as Morthos’s magic or Sena’s it should still pack a serious punch. The shield appeared completely undamaged and now the Shardmind started using the shield to form its torso back together. Tekaru was preparing another offensive spell when an immense stabbing pain entered his thigh. He fell to one knee and another large crystal shard punctured into his shoulder. He shouted in pain then looked around to see his allies were in no condition to help him. 

Morthos was unconscious, Ian fired an arrow and it hit the Wilden in the shoulder but he creature paid little heed to it and used the opportunity to trip Ian up where it then preceded a non stop assault on him. Allen and Sena were evenly matched with the dragonborn but they were so focused they didn’t see Shako’s attack coming. A powerful gale of wind took Allen and Sena off their feet and knocked them hard into the wall where the dragonborn went in and put there blades to their throats. The fight was over and the friends had lost badly.

 

Allen and Sena had only minor wounds that they healed themselves and then went over to heal the others. First they concentrated together on Tekaru’s wounds and then moved on to Ian. Morthos was just knocked unconscious mentally so there was no real damage with him they just had to wait for him to regain consciousness. Ian had several bruised bones and a few cracked ribs but he was fully healed up with Tekaru’s help.

When Morthos woke up Shako said “Now let’s review. Anyone care to tell me what went wrong back there?” 

“It’s my fault” Tekaru said. “If I had thrown up a barrier at your initial attack we wouldn’t have been so caught off guard and been together to fend off the other attacks.”

“Yes your lack of action at the beginning did cost you greatly but it’s not all your fault Tekaru. Still since when have you ever been so caught off guard by an enemies surprise attack? Regardless of your answer the fault is with everyone. Your biggest weakness was your confidence and lack of team work.

Allen, Sena lets start with you two next. You two were so focused on beating Akra and Torinn that you failed to see your allies were in great peril. Sena you know Allen could hold his own against those two for a good amount of time you should have left him to it and helped Ian who could only dodge his enemy’s attacks and couldn’t even get close t counter attack. And the same goes for you Allen you should have sent her away to help and keep Akra and Torinn’s attention on you while she escaped. 

And as for you Tekaru you may have some tricks up your sleeve, literally but you only have one offensive attack. You should have spent your time guarding your self until help can arrive. You may perceive it as cowardly but you cannot face an opponent head on remember what I told you, only attack if your enemies are distracted and your allies don’t need your immediate assistance, which reminds me when you noticed Morthos and I were locked in mental combat and no one else could help him why didn’t you throw that flask at me instead. It would have served as the perfect distraction for him to knock me unconscious instead and then come to your aid. Now clean up, eat and get some rest we will be at this again tomorrow.”

The next day went much better, as Shako tried the same maneuver he had before Tekaru had thrown up a barrier and Akra and Torinn charged as they did before. This time however Allen faced them both on his own while Sena transformed into a wolf and took on the Wilden. Shako then targeted Tekaru for a mental attack and Morthos battled it out with the Shardmind. 

The match was looking like it was a stalemate when Shako surprised Sena by shooting her with a gust of wind like the other day but this time the Wilden used the opportunity to beat her up until she lost consciousness. When Sena was out of the picture the Wilden focused on Allen who got quickly overwhelmed and Torinn pinned him down with a blade to his throat forcing him out of the fight. Akra charged Ian right away and though he was able to keep his distance he was caught of guard by Wilden as it tackled him.

Ian got his legs under the Wilden and used there momentum to throw it off of him but Akra used that opening to get close to him. Ian dropped his bow and pulled out his long knives. The two dueled with Ian holding his own perfectly fine but he kept his eyes on the Wilden as much as he could waiting for its next attack. As soon as the stretched limb flew at Ian he cart wheeled around it and got to Akra’s side.

Once he was in that position Ian made sure to keep Akra between the Wilden and him at all times. It took all his focus but somehow Ian was able to fend off Akra’s attacks and weave around the Wilden’s distance ones. The battle looked like it was going to go back into a stalemate when Shako came from seemingly nowhere and tripped Ian on his but with his tail. Akra took the chance to pin Ian down like Torinn had done to Allen. Ian looked around and saw that only he and Allen had retained consciousness from that fight. 

 

The group got several days to rest and recover before the next battle. They used this time to come up with battle strategies and tell each other about the enemies’ weaknesses. Shako promised them that there would be no ambushes but they still kept an ear or eye out at all times. 

After the week of rest was over everyone took there positions same as last time, unlike last time though everyone stood there starring at each other waiting to see who would make the first move. It was completely silent as minutes passed and still nothing happened. Several more minutes passed and Sena looked to Allen to see if he knew what was happening. He shook his head a little wondering the same thing.

Ian and Morthos started slowly backing up to gain distance while everyone else stood still. Then Tekaru dropped to the ground unconscious and like it was on queue Akra and Torinn opened there mouths and a burst of fire breath and ice breath launched out aimed for Sena and Allen. 

Caught almost completely off guard by the different attack wave Allen barley got his shield up in time to block the flames. He had no idea if Sena had dodged the icy breath either. The torrent of flames kept up and Allen couldn’t do anything but keep his shield in front of him while he waited for Torrin to run out of breath. Finally when he did Allen lowered his shield and prepared to counterattack when he noticed he was surrounded and everyone else was beaten unconscious.

Allen surrendered and when Shako gave him the OK to do so he went over to Sena first and started healing her wounds. As he healed up everyone as best he could, Allen got to thinking how they must learn to fight while in a mind battle or else they would continually lose like this. Allen knew this was possible he saw Shako do so before. Then he came to the theory that Shako and the others were holding back on them. After healing everyone best as he could Allen waited until they were awake to tell them what he learned. 

 

Over the next several battles, everyone was more focused on functioning normally while defending their minds. Shako also told them that if they find themselves in combat with someone trying to use mental techniques to subdue them then they should make that person their primary target. It’s harder to attack someone mentally then it is to defend from mental attacks so in doing so the person will open themselves up a lot. 

Time became completely irrelevant training in the caves. Eventually they were good enough to fight off the mental attacks from Shako and the Shardmind while fighting normally. When they finally pulled off a good win Shako and the Shardmind stopped using mind techniques and focused more so on straight combat. The friends soon found out that this made it harder because now Shako’s group wasn’t holding anything back. 

Now that the battles had become more combat oriented instead of a mix between mental and physical combat the friends could only fight once a week due to exhaustion or serious wounds that needed longer to recover and mend. Tekaru could mend any wound as long as it wasn’t too serious. He also learned how to create an internal barrier keeping the enemies trapped inside unable to break out. It was a useful trick but he could only use it once on this group because they made sure not to let him isolate them enough to where Tekaru could trap up to two or more at a time in a barrier then overwhelm the rest.

Soon enough the group became stronger and was able to fight two or even three battles a week. Even more time passed and they were up to a battle everyday. Sometimes they would win but most of the times they would lose. Eventually the time had come where they were winning every fight and things were only getting easier. It was then that Shako decided he had nothing left to teach them and it was time for them to go to Koramu.


	8. Hardships

Chapter Seven: Hardships

 

Winter break was over and for the first time in his life Josh was glad to be going back to school. Things haven’t gotten much easier on Josh since his friend’s spirits transferred realms and their bodies were in comatose states. His grades had been slipping and he had been getting in fights with many other students.

The other students all believed he had something to do with his friend’s condition. Some of them were sympathetic with him and tried to tell him they were sorry for what happened but he didn’t care about them. They were shallow bastards, but the worst of them was the school bullies who now targeted Josh. He put up with there pushing him around or poking him and even hitting him with spitballs. However one day one of them crossed the line and they paid greatly for it.

It was early November and Josh was in P.E just sitting back. Eventually the teacher had him get up and just walk around the gym with the others who wouldn’t participate. There were three other kids and one of them was named Tom Green, he was the main bully who picked on Josh.

Tom kept close to Josh through the walk and started pushing him every other second. Josh ignored him completely and Tom got irritated by this. “So loser” Tom said. “What’s it like knowing your friends get to sleep all day while you have to go to school?”

Josh clenched his fist in anger but otherwise said nothing and kept walking.

“Yea must be tough having all your friends in such an unstable condition like that wondering if their going to die any minute now. As for me I’m glad those losers are in a coma it’s bad enough we have you nerding this place up.”

Josh stopped walking. Tom grabbed his shirt and pulled him up to his toes. Tom was at least a head taller than Josh but before Tom could say what he was going to Josh pulled his head back and brought it forward as fast and as hard as he could slamming it into Toms. Tom was forced to let Josh go and take a couple steps back. Then Josh brought his fist up into Toms gut. 

Tom hurled over in pain as the air escaped his lungs. Josh then grabbed Tom by the back of his hair with one hand and with all the force he could muster he slammed Toms head into the window of one of the gymnasiums doors. The window shattered in Toms face cutting it open, then Josh through him to the ground.

The teacher rushed over right away only then being alerted to the fight after the broken glass and Tom’s cries of pain. Everyone starred at Josh with confusion and amazement including the teacher. 

Tom was taken to the nurse by the teacher and security shortly showed up to escort Josh to the principal’s office. The other two students who were walking joined as well because they saw and heard the whole thing. Josh said nothing to the principal but the two students Emily and Kelly told him about how Tom was insulting Josh’s friends and Josh ignored him until Tom said that he wished they were dead where Josh stopped and Tom started the fight. 

That wasn’t entirely what had happened but when the principal had asked him if it was, Josh nodded in agreement. Emily and Kelly were then free to go and Josh had t wait until his dad arrived. The principal decided to show much leniency for Josh considering all that happened to him and given his complete lack of any other form of trouble. Josh’s punishment was that he was suspended from school for the remainder of the week and would have detention everyday after school for the entire next week. 

When they left the principals office Josh’s dad only asked him if he wanted to say what happened in Josh’s words. Josh said nothing and when they got into the car his dad was about to chew him out until he saw the tears streaming down Josh’s face. 

His dad sighed then said, “Look as far as mom has to know you got into the fight because the kid was picking on some girl you like alright? She might make you do extra chores or something and I’ll tell her you’re helping me clean the garage as punishment.” Then his dad put his hand on Josh shoulder, gave it a gentle squeeze and started the car then drove them home. 

Before Josh got out of the car when they got home in a mumbled and quite tone he said, “Thanks dad.” Then Josh got out, unlocked the front door with his key and went up to his room and cried himself to sleep because he just didn’t know what else to do.

 

The weekend of his suspension from school; after Josh finished vacuuming the living room Josh went up to his room and pulled the book out of a small safe hidden in his closet. Josh didn’t read the book as much as he used to because he soon found out most of the pages were blank with the story his friends had yet to write. He hadn’t talked to them for weeks or heard anything thing from that Shako guy either. 

The last available part of the book he could read told him that his friends were captured by a band of orcs and they were tied up in a cell at the east end of the orcs village. Thanks to Andy’s cunning he burned through the ropes that bound them and then he teleported himself out of the jail cell, killed there guard and took his keys and unlocked everyone. Andy did this by pretending to be unconscious the whole time so the orcs wouldn’t try to put him in a separate room surrounded by magic barriers. 

The jail cell had some magic barriers but as soon as they were in, Shaun was working out a way to disable it long enough for Andy to do what he did. After Andy unlocked the cell Ian and Allen took head of the escape so when they encountered any guards they could kill them easier. The first guard they killed was armed only with a knife that Ian used; the next one had a sword and shield which Allen took. 

Once they were outside of the Jail it was nighttime and dark in the village. Ella shape shifted into a bird and flew up high to gather information on the layout of the village and if they would have to fight there way out or if they could sneak out. Meanwhile Andy used his mental powers to search for and invade the mind of the ones who took all their weapons and armor so they could get them back.

Ella flew into the Alley that they had transferred into so that they would be in a less conspicuous spot. “The city is crawling with guards.” Ella said. “It would explain why the jail was left so unguarded and with so few actually in it.”

“That and the fact they thought we were helpless without our weapons and armor.” Ian said. “Anyways what about other exists is there any other way out of the city besides the one we came?”

“No it’s built in the mountains not to deep where they’ll have hardships from it but located so they could make it an only one way in or out type of village.”

“How about you Andy, have you found out where our gear is?”

“That and more” Andy said. “As I suspected this place wasn’t built by orcs to smart a location and not the correct architect design for their kind. Every single orc here is a soldier more or less.”

“What does more or less mean?” Dan asked. “Do we have to worry about hurting civilians or not?”

“No there aren’t any civilians here from what I have gathered. In fact it seems like this place was taken over by orcs years ago, which would explain why the barrier in the jail was weak because they didn’t create it so they don’t know how to refine its magic. 

Regardless of what this place is actually used for we are going to have to fight our way out of here. I’m not suggesting we destroy everything however if there is anything in our way we shouldn’t hesitate to destroy it. Our gear is being held in the building furthest to the north it looks like a place someone like a mayor would stay.”

“Alright then here is the plan, Andy you will set fire to the jail and as that grabs their attention and there out looking for us we will sneak into where they are holding our weapons. While were doing that I want you to teleport around the village and set fire to about five other buildings that you think is important. After that Ella you transform back into a bird find Andy and guide him back to us. Once were regrouped well make it for the exit as fast as we can and cut down any orc that gets in your way momentum is the key here.”

As soon as Andy cast his spell and lit the jail on fire beginning their escape plan Josh’s heart rate dramatically increased. Of course they had been in scarier positions before but even so he still worried for their safety. He had his eyes practically glued to the book through the whole escape. 

Josh cheered when they got their weapons and when they grouped back up over halfway through the village where they met no resistance yet. Everyone was to distracted trying to put out the fires Andy had caused. Ian’s plan was brilliant as always and it was only when they were in sight of the exit they met resistance. It was heavy at first but Ian launched a volley of arrows combined with Andy’s powerful spells dwindled down the orcs numbers so fast that by the time they actually got within fighting distance there was only twelve of them left. 

Ella transformed into a massive bear and Sam jumped on her back, pulling out his long sword as she charged into the group of orcs. Dan was right behind her and they cut down the enemies with swift ferocity. Sam jumped off Ella when there were no more orcs in their path and she transformed into a wolf. They looked behind them to see dozens more orcs coming at them and realized that the main gate was still closed.

Josh’s heart raced rapidly as he kept reading those pages daring to see how his friends would escape. It was Andy to the rescue, while everyone else was fighting the orcs that got up close he was chanting for a powerful spell. He finished moments after the orcs were defeated then extended both of his hands aimed for the gate. A bolt of powerful flames shot out and blasted a massive hole through the gate.

They quickly made a break for it and dived through the hole; Sam was first through, Ella shape shifted to a bird so that Shaun could go next and Dan followed right behind him. Then he looked back and saw Andy was right at the foot of the hole and shouted to him “Come on.” Andy was chanting and concentrating on another powerful spell though.

Ella dropped down from the sky and turned back into her elf form to ask him what was going on. The orcs were nearly on top of them and a few of them had their spears aimed ready to toss them. Ella then cast a spell of her own as vines lashed out from the ground and tripped up the orcs with the spears. Dan was making his way back to them when Andy stopped chanting and his arms started dancing around as a wall of flames was thrown up just a few feet in front of him blocking the main gate. Andy kept dancing around with his arms as the wall of flames grew from only a couple feet high to about ten.

Andy was breathing heavily when he said, “That will stop them for a little while. This way we can escape without them trailing us easily.” Then he turned around and went through the hole in the gate; when he saw Sam and Shaun he explained what he had done as Dan and Ella followed shortly behind. 

The rest of the books written pages only told Josh about how his friends after escaping the orcs left the country and traveled some more just enjoying themselves. They had no clue where to go next or what to do and the book cut off when they went to this inn. How long had his friends been in that world it didn’t say. It only told him about their adventures, Josh was relived to know they were ok but still saddened he couldn’t do anything to help them and he lost contact with Shako a long time ago. 

 

As the new years passed Josh started going to a therapist for his depression by his parents demand. The therapy helped a little but Josh couldn’t tell his therapist about the book, he couldn’t tell anyone about what really troubled him. Not only would no one believe him but they would think he was crazy and try to take the book away his only connection to his friends. 

Josh still visited them once a week every week no matter the circumstances. He stayed as long as he could with them and sometimes the nurse would give him a little extra time passed visiting hours. Josh looked in the book everyday though to see if there was more progress in it.

Schools become a little better for Josh after he beat Tom up. The other bullies stopped messing with him and his grade point average soon rose to 3.6 and stayed that way. Josh felt concentrating more in school helped him more with the situation and it did but only a little. Eventually his therapist recommended he find a hobby something he liked to do to keep his mind off of things while out of school. 

Josh tried many hobbies as his therapist suggested and ultimately ended up drawing. He usually drew monsters or other works of fiction like fairies, dragons, and demons. He wasn’t very good at first but he averaged about five drawing s day. 

Josh showed his therapist some of his drawings as per her request but he kept certain ones away from her to keep her from asking him more annoying questions. And another month had passed without anything from the Shako or the book. Then one day something unexpected happened.

It was in the middle of the night when book started shining a massive luminescent light as it did the first time. Josh was still asleep until his room was full lit by it. Even though the book was in a safe in his closet the light was fierce and Josh felt his heart race as the book glowed like it had the when this whole thing started; he feared that the book would draw him in as it did his friends. 

Despite his fear Josh went to the safe in his closet and opened it, the book looked like pure blue light at that point. But when Josh touched it, the book stopped glowing immediately. Josh pulled it out of the safe and turned on his bed lamp. 

Josh flipped through the rest of the pages and saw that the book was now completely full. Taken completely by surprise Josh put the book down on his bed and sat. Was this a good sign or a bad sign; he couldn’t tell. He was afraid to find out for the worst what had happened. But knew he couldn’t resist. And there was only one way to find out, Josh put his bed lamp on the brightest setting and opened the book from last where it left off then began reading. 

 

It was early morning when Josh had finished the book, he had been up all night reading it but when he got to the end his heart stopped. Josh couldn’t believe any of this. When he finally came to senses again Josh didn’t even stop to change closes he just threw on his shoes, and a jacket then hopped on his bike and raced to the hospital as fast he could.


	9. Victory? Or Defeat?

Chapter Eight: Victory? Or Defeat?

 

Shako stood at the foot of the massive white stone gates that had a symbol of small dragon on the middle of it. He put his hand up to the symbol, touched it then took a few steps back. At first nothing happened then the doors slowly opened, dust falling from the sides like they hadn’t been opened in a long time. 

First look inside the city was amazing almost indescribable. There were thousands of deferent structures that rose to the skies. Some of them were like towers others resembled huts only much larger. And some were just giant domes; all the structures were made out of marble and looked like they hadn’t aged a day. 

The city was miles and miles wide, and there was a direct path from the entrance to a massive temple with what appeared to be statues of each kind of dragon. Because of how far away it was only Ian could make out that much, he knew then that the walk alone would take them several hours. 

Everyone was vigilant while walking through the city, they made sure to keep their senses open as much as possible and watch every angle they could, but nothing happened. They had been walking for a few hours nonstop and still nothing happened. Then Sena spoke up, “Why are there no dragons in the dragon capital here?”  
Shako paused a moment and said, “My guess is their all gone either dead or left when Bahamut fell. I don’t sense any other presence here besides yours but regardless remain vigilant just in case.”

After that they said nothing and after a few more hours they finally reached the temple, where Shako instructed everyone to stop at the foot of the stairs. He made them rest and eat while they discussed battle strategies. After about an hour of debate and rest it was all decided, once they reached the top of the stairs Torrin and Akra would be the first ones to open the door and go inside. Behind them would be Allen, Tekaru, and Sena preparing to either charge or hold defense in their position. Finally Shako, Ian, and Morthos would be at the back attacking with everything they had against the shadow. 

Once they all reached the top of the stairs Shako said, “I can feel an immense power inside. He’s defiantly in there however I can also feel his mind pressing against mine. Right now its weak but when we open those doors he’s probably going to do everything he can to put us under mental submission. I can hold him off you guys so you can stay focused on the battle but I will not be able to participate because of it.”

Akra and Torrin pushed on the massive gold colored gate with as much force as they could muster. At first nothing happened but they kept pushing then slowly the gate started opening. It was quite and there was no dust on the gates, in fact they looked brand new.

Inside the temple was massive but surprisingly plain. There was lots of window and columns and everything was white except the windows which actually didn’t have any glass they were just an open sections inside the temple. At the far end ahead of where they were standing inside the temple was a throne but there was nothing in it, it was empty.

“Keep your guard up” Shako said. “This place is completely different from what I remember it to be.”

Everyone got into their formation as they slowly walked into the temple. Ten steps and nothing happened. Another twenty steps but still nothing felt different everything seemed calm and empty inside the temple. Then the closer they got to the throne the more they could make out a figure coming in clearer and clearer. 

Then they were close enough to tell that the figure was a massive dark dragon standing on four legs just ideally starring at them the gates to the temple slammed shut. They looked behind them after hearing the loud thud noise and that’s when two dark bolts of energy launched from the dark dragon aimed for the group. The trap had been sprung. 

Akra and Torrin immediately reacted by combing their breath attacks to counter the attack. As the two flames battled the dark energy everyone else prepared themselves for the counterattack. Ian looked to Morthos and they both nodded their heads in agreement to his unspoken plan.

As soon as the dark energy attack subsided Ian Sprinted as fast as he could to the right while Morthos teleported as far as he could to the left. Then Ian shouted “Tekaru throw up a trap barrier around the dragon.” 

Tekaru didn’t hesitate to think what Ian’s plan was he simply acted and activated a barrier around Bahamut that would trap him or his attacks inside. And from the looks of things it was just in time; Bahamut waved his hand just as the barrier went up and dark energy collided with the shield inside and rebounded into him. As the energy hit off against his barrier though Tekaru could feel it drain his power; whatever the attack was it was strong. 

Once Ian saw the barrier was down he launched two arrows in rapid succession aimed for Bahamut’s left eye. Bahamut blocked it with his wing but the arrows still penetrated the softer skin. Bahamut turned his attention to Ian and opened his mouth to blast him with something until a massive bolt of flame hit Bahamut in his head and forced him to take a couple steps back. 

Morthos was already chanting for another powerful spell to have it at the ready like he had while he waited for Ian to distract Bahamut. As he was chanting and gathering energy he looked around the room to see what the others were doing. Shako hadn’t moved an inch and was obviously in perfect concentration. Akra, Allen, and Torrin were all charging Bahamut now that he was disoriented. Sena appeared to be gathering energy for something as well as Tekaru; who took cover by one of the pillars to be more inconspicuous but still useful. 

When Bahamut recovered from the attack he noticed the three charging him and spun around to smack them with his tail. Akra and Torrin jumped above and Allen threw up his shield to block it but got knocked back several feet. Then once they were at the height of their jump Akra and Torrin combined another spell of theirs. This time the combination was a lightning attack and Bahamut had just enough time to counter it with blast of dark energy from his mouth. 

The collision of the blast sent Akra and Torrin flying in mid air into two separate pillars. Then Ian launched an arrow at Bahamut’s throat in an attempt to distract him while the others recovered but Bahamut ignored it and let the arrows hit his throat. The arrows penetrated his throat a little but Bahamut paid no attention to them and started flapping his wings like he was getting read to take flight. 

Tekaru and Allen were busy healing Akra and Torrin, Sena was still concentrating on her spell and Ian’s attacks seemed pointless; Morthos new that if Bahamut took to the air it would be problematic so he was forced to cast his spell prematurely. Morthos extended his hands towards Bahamut as a bolt of flame shot out.

This time Bahamut was prepared for the attack and turned his head, opened his mouth and countered the attack with streak of black flames. The two flames canceled each other out as Bahamut started flapping his massive wings starting to gain altitude. Then a massive green algae looking behemoth tackled Bahamut. The two clashed into Bahamut’s Throne and crushed it as they wrestled around on top of each other.

Morthos looked around as the others recovered and were now standing back watching this new creature fight Bahamut head on. “What the hell is that thing?” Allen shouted to Morthos. Morthos looked around the room then said, “I think its Sena. This may be her new power.”

As if in response to their questions the behemoth grabbed Bahamut by its tail and legs and tossed him into one of the far walls. Everyone looked to the Behemoth and it nodded to them; that confirmed it, the behemoth was Sena. While Bahamut was recovering from the toss everyone ran at him to surround Bahamut.

Bahamut recovered quicker than anticipated and counter attacked right away with a powerful blast of flame shot from his mouth aimed at Sena. Tekaru reacted right away by throwing up an unseen barrier between Sena and the flame. Everyone else kept up their charge and surprisingly it was Allen who made it to Bahamut first. 

Allen used lifted his sword high above his head and with Bahamut distracted he stabbed it into Bahamut’s foot as hard as he could. Bahamut roared in pain and smacked Allen with the back of his hand. Allen went flying into one of the columns and landed hard on the ground. Bahamut went to pull the sword from his foot when Akra and Torrin came up on the same side and launched a powerful united spell at him. 

Bahamut who was thought to be stuck in place with Allen’s sword leaped at the last possible second dodging the attack. Caught off guard Akra and Torrin were unable to react in time to what happened next. Bahamut landed to the side of them with his back behind most everyone else. Bahamut inhaled and with massive force exhaled a torrent of wind that violently threw Akra and Torrin threw one of the windows and out of the temple. 

Morthos acting quickly as he could teleported to the window to see what would become of them. They fell at incredible speed and Morthos could see jagged rocks at the bottom. He looked away before they hit the bottom and when Ian looked to him for reassurance he shook his head. Then a roar of furry they had never heard before erupted behind them from Shako.

Shako spit out massive bile of acid from his mouth aimed at Bahamut. Bahamut tried blocking with one of his wings but the acid started burning through immediately and Bahamut roared with pain and tried flinging the acid off his wing to no avail. While he was busy with that he didn’t notice Shako was now charging him spitting more acid out from his mouth at Bahamut.

Bahamut and Shako battled it out while everyone else stood back due to the immense danger. Shako stopped spitting acid out but was now casting powerful spells from many different schools of magic. Bahamut was dripping blood from several wounds where the acid Shako shot had hit him. The two were now down to countering attacks with spells from the opposite school of magic. 

The battle between the two dragons looked a lot like a wizards duel only much more intense. Shako’s reflex started slowing down as Bahamut was pushing him back. Then everyone remembered how Shako was originally battling Bahamut in his mind and keeping the friends from having to do so in the hopes of them being able to fight without distraction. Now Shako had taken on both roles; irritated for just sitting back as soon as the opportunity arrived Sena charged at Bahamut once again. 

Just like last time Sena caught Bahamut off guard but now Bahamut was severely weakened and she was easily able to push him back. Bahamut was thrown into the furthest wall behind the now destroyed throne. And in a stunning move Sena was on top of him almost instantaneously; with one powerful punch she smashed his throat in. Bahamut coughed out blood once and then stopped moving all together.

Allen woke up just in time to see Sena crush Bahamut’s throat. Tekaru stopped mending Allen long enough to stare at the scene. Sena was now transforming back to her elf form and Shako was breathing heavily looking like he could collapse any second now. 

“Something not right” Ian said. “That was too easy.”

“He’s right.” Shako said. “This is very disturbing someone is-”  
Shako never got to finish the sentence. Everything seemed to happen so fast almost like it wasn’t real. As Shako started talking a massive wave of flame assaulted him from the side and blasted him out of the same window Akra, and Torrin were thrown from.

No one could believe what had just happened as they all turned to look at Morthos. He was wearing a malicious grin on his face as he turned to Sena and then attacked her. Black lighting soared across the room and Sena barley jumped out of the way. Ian was the first to counter attack as Morthos attempted another attack he launched an arrow that directly pierced Morthos’s shoulder. 

As Morthos pulled the arrow out of his shoulder and looked over the situation Allen and Tekaru got up and slowly walked over to Sena and Ian’s side never taking their eyes off Morthos. “Well it’s your move now buddy” Ian said.

Morthos closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them and threw his hands out in front of him. A massive wave of flame launched at them and Tekaru threw up an invisible barrier in response. The flames were so bright they had to shield their eyes from it, and when the attack stopped they looked back and Morthos was gone. They looked around the temple even the body of Bahamut had disappeared. 

“Is that it? What do we do now?” Allen asked.  
No one said anything. Shako was gone, Bahamut’s dark form is supposedly defeated, and their friend betrayed them. Did they win? Did they lose? The remaining friends felt a great sadness in their hearts as they walked away from the temple, none of them knew what to do or where to go next; they just wandered.


	10. Deception

Chapter Nine: Deception

 

The class room was full of noise even when the teacher walked in. All the kids were talking to each other and there were paper airplanes flying around at random. Not a single one of them noticed the teacher had just come in.

“Attention class!” the teacher shouted as everything went quite and all the students turned their heads and stopped talking. “We have a new student today so please be quite and listen while he introduces himself.” 

The young boy raised his head and looked at no one in particular. His voice was shy and a little shaky; he was nervous as all could be. “Hello my name is Andy I just moved into town here.” 

The class said nothing just stared at Andy until the teacher let him find an open seat. Then everyone went back to their conversations like nothing happened and the teacher started writing on the chalk board. Andy didn’t say another word for the rest of the day. 

Several months had passed and Andy still hadn’t made any friends. Everyone at school seemed to already know each other and he had no others kids even close to his age at his neighborhood. Seven years old and Andy still hadn’t a friend to hang with.

Then one day a group of kids invited Andy to hang with them after school and Andy happily accepted. Gullible and kind of desperate Andy had no reason to be suspicious of these people. But as Andy went to the back of the school where they told him to meet he got pelted with dozens of water balloons. Andy’s tears were mixed in with the water so the other kids couldn’t tell he was crying but they still laughed at him and moved on. 

Pranks on Andy quickly became like a new school rule. In class they would hit him in the back of the head with spitballs or put gum in his hair. At lunch he usually had a milk carton tossed at him or whatever messy food the other kids didn’t want. As they got a little older the pranks grew, now it was swirlies and being tripped in the middle of the hall when Andy was carrying anything by hand. 

Andy was ten years old when he started getting into fights. One day he’d had enough of the pranks and challenged one of the kids to a fight, but the kid brought his buddies and they all ganged up on Andy. Over these years of abuse Andy became untrustworthy of anyone from then on. 

Then one day in middle school where he got beat up once a week Andy finally decided to take action. He knew he couldn’t take on three kids at once so on the next week before the bullies had come for him he found a way to get one of the bats from the baseball club, and he hid it for quick access the next time the bullies came around for him. Andy made sure to stick around the spot he hid the bat waiting for the bullies until finally on a Friday they came for him like he knew they would.

This time however when they got there Andy pulled the bat on them and turned it all around. He left the kids with cracked ribs, a broken leg or a broken arm. He got suspended for the next week after that but his parents took it upon themselves to move and give Andy a fresh start. 

Andy moved into a small town and went back to his old habits of being a loner. But soon enough in class one of the kids started talking to him asking him where he came from, his hobbies and stuff like that. The boys name was Sam and Andy thought this was just like his old school so he did his best to avoid Sam outside of class but Sam was persistent and Andy eventually caved in and hung out with him a little more. 

Soon Andy and Sam had become friends and Andy even trusted him enough to meet Josh and Dan; two of Sam’s other friends. Soon enough two others had arrived Shaun, and Ella. Once they had this many people they got into this game Josh bought a starter kit of called Dungeons and Dragons. The friends immediately became hooked on the game and got together nearly every week since then to play.

 

Memories from his past life had been filling Morthos’s dreams for the last several rests. It had been ten years now since he betrayed his comrades. Now Morthos lived in hell with his master and ruler of hell: Baelfien. 

Why were these memories haunting his sleep now Morthos thought to himself. No, that wasn’t right. Andy. His name was Andy. Deep feelings of regret filled Andy’s stomach now. The first friends he ever had and he’d betrayed them so coldly. But it wasn’t all him was it? No his master had corrupted him overtime but Andy knew he was to be blamed he allowed himself to fall into the demon lords clutches.

Andy went over to his mirror. Normally it was only used for trying special portal spells but this time he used as it should be used to reflect ones self. Andy felt disgust looking at himself. His body was almost completely demonic now. His skin was blood red and thick, his horns had grown longer and he had a tail that manifested over the last ten years.

Andy was living in hell now as the second in command. His master Baelfien serves the shadow Bahamut the real one. The one he and his friends fought ten years ago was a powerful fake. Andy had to secretly take over its ability to use mental attacks to throw off Shako which made it harder for him to remain undercover. With Baelfien’s help Andy successfully killed Shako but as expected his friends would get away. 

Everything was falling into place that Baelfien and Shadow Bahamut had set up. Soon shadow Bahamut would become too powerful for even him and his friends to stop so Andy knew he would have to act fast. Andy started chanting and his image in the mirror became distorted and soon vanished. By the time Andy finished casting his spell the mirror reflected somewhere else; the portal was open and Andy walked through it. 

* * * *

 

It had been 10 years since Andy’s betrayal and the loss of the groups mentor and friend, Shako. Dan and Shaun were full grown adults now entering there mid thirties; While Ella, and Ian being of a different race aged much slower, but still they had matured just as much. After they were betrayed by their friend the group abandoned they’re new names and went back to the ones they had on earth. 

For the last ten years the group had been searching around for answers but to no avail. They never found out if what they defeated was the real shadow of Bahamut or not (but they suspected it wasn’t). And they never found out why Andy betrayed them or where he went.

The friends spent the night at a larger Inn sitting in the same room talking casually. None of them noticed the demon that stepped into the room with them through the mirror until it spoke up. “Hello my friends” Andy said.

Everyone turned there heads in surprise and rose to their feet grabbing their nearby weapons. Before anyone could attack though Andy snapped his fingers and the group fell through the floor and landed hard on some warm ground. While they recovered from the fall Andy said, “Welcome to hell. If you wish to get out of here then follow my sigil it will lead to me and my master. There we will have a duel to see who is best, you four losers; or the mighty king and prince of hell.”

Then Andy vanished leaving the group all alone. The friends all got to their feet and looked around them. The landscape looked like the inside of a volcano; the ground was red and orange. And in the distance all they could see was flames and magma.   
After looking around for a few minutes to find out where to go next Sam spotted a red ring with a small dragon in the center of it, the whole thing glowing red, on a nearby wall. As the friends approached it the sigil faded and the wall began to open and revealed a passage way. They looked at each other to see what they should do next when Sam said, “We do not have much option here, whatever trap Andy is planning at least it gets us further” Sam said. “From here our only other option is find a way to survive a fall straight down into the fire and magma below or rot to death.”

Then Sam started walking down the passage his friend’s right behind him. The passage led on for nearly an hour, curving twisting or turning but always looking exactly the same. Eventually they came to the end a wall that looked no different then the rest of the passage but had no other routes. 

It only took a second before glowing red writing started appearing on the wall in front of them. It was in common tongue and read: “Count to six before proceeding ahead after the wall comes down. Then move as quickly and quietly as you can forward heading for the stairs. Keep your eyes straight and do not kill any guards, that will only bring unwanted attention and you will be fighting the legions of hell.

Instead go down the stairs, remove the seals over the locks on the cells. The freed prisoners will give you all the distraction you need. Do not waist your time freeing all of them only a few are necessary. Afterwards continue down the prison hold and keep turning left and on the third turn there will be an open cell door with a teleportation ring in the center of the floor.

Once all of you are standing in the ring I will teleport you to Baelfien’s throne room, there is where everything will be explained.”

No one knew what sort of game Andy was getting at but before they could stop and try to think about it the wall in front of them silently slid down into the ground. As it did the group could see a pair of large angry looking demon guards walking past. The guards didn’t notice them and without realizing it entirely the group was already counting to six. 

At the end of their count they all one by one ran straight for the stairs just ahead of them not daring to look around them for fear they might be caught. As quietly as they could they all went down the stairs that went much deeper than they first thought. It took them several minutes to get to the bottom of the stairs and when they did they arrived at a massive maze of wide corridors filled with what appeared to normal jail cells except with red bars.

Sam took notice of the bars colors and said, “Wow red. What a fitting hue for hell.” His sarcasm felt more cold and bitter then humorous.

Dan placed his hand next to one of the bars but didn’t touch it. He waited for a moment then said, “These bars are blistering hot, you would get a scar from just grazing one of them.”

“I don’t see anything inside the cells but I can sense something, strong inside.” Shaun said.

After examining the cells that by appearance were empty the friends turned their attentions to the rectangular slips of paper that were covering the area of where an ordinary cell’s keyhole would be. Strangely most of the seals were entirely black but a few were white. Everyone looked at each other trying to decide what they should do when Dan walked up to one of the cells with a white seal and went to remove it.

Sam grabbed his friend’s hand stopping him and said, “It could be some kind of trap.”

Dan turned to face his friend then smiled at him and said, “Faith my friend.”

Everyone stood several feet behind Dan, weapons and spells ready for anything. Dan grabbed the slip of white paper carefully hesitated for just a brief moment then yanked it off the cell. For a long moment nothing happened, then a large four legged behemoth with black igneous rock for skin burst out of the cell. 

Dan leapt back just in time to dodge the creature initial charge. He landed just in front of his friends and put his shield forward and his free hand on his sword and waited for the beast’s next move. The behemoth looked at the group started to growl and was crouching down to prepare another charge when the sounds of shouting from atop the stairs caught the behemoth’s attention. A small group of five demonic guards rushed down the stairs wielding spears and some ordinary looking armor, they shouted something in a demonic tongue which no one could understand then started attacking the behemoth.

The behemoth made quick work of the guards ripping them apart in a gruesome display of gore. Then the behemoth completely forgetting the group behind it; ran up the stairs and soon the sounds of chaos followed. The friends didn’t wait much longer until they went to the other two cells with white slips and removed them making sure to be clear of the path of any other charging beasts immediately after. 

Fortunately for the friends the other two cells held much calmer but perhaps just as dangerous monsters in them. The third and final cell with a white paper on it held a strange demon that was tall and slender with red skin; and almost looked human. The demon casually walked out of the cell turned to the friends and said something in a demonic language that none of them could understand. The demon waited for the friends to respond but when they didn’t it spoke again but this time in common tongue, “By whose design is this?”

The friends all looked at each other not sure what to do by this strange demons inquiry then Sam spoke up, “It was Andy’s… I mean it was Morthos’s design by which you are now free.”

The demon glared at the friends briefly then said, “The apprentice? Hmm an interesting but very daring coup. Very well I shall play my part as the distraction until it gets boring then I shall go watch your struggle. Good luck warriors of Bahamut.” After its last sentence the demon disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The friends didn’t take much time to think about the demon or how it knew who they were but they all felt a little disturbed by the fact it had. After double checking the cells to make sure there were not any more white slips of paper the friends continued on until they found the cell Andy told them about. It was immediately after the third left turn like his instructions said but it was so small compared to the other cells they all missed except for Sam; who called to everyone to stop. 

Everyone looked inside the small cell that could barley fit all of them in it. Like Andy said there was a glowing circle inside the cell waiting for them. Shaun took a couple minutes to feel around the cell for any magical traps and examine the circle. And even after Shaun confirmed that it was safe to enter, they all walked in cautiously. 

When everyone was inside the circle; it started glowing brighter and brighter and in a couple seconds the light was so bright that it blinded everyone momentarily. After regaining their sight the first thing all of them saw was their friend Andy, he looked exactly the same way he did the day he betrayed all of them. Andy turned and faced his friends as a wave of powerful energy starting pulsing inside all of their heads. They knew what the sensation was it was him trying to get in their heads, for a moment they fought back but Andy quickly ripped apart their mental defenses and was inside all their heads. For only a moment everything was dark inside their heads then Andy’s entire life as he remembered it began playing inside their minds.

It took only a minute for things to happen but to the friends it felt like an entire lifetime. They felt everything Andy felt, his fear, his love, his sorrow, and his pain. More than anything now Andy wanted to run over to his friends and hug them all, but he knew he would have to earn that, by helping them kill his master.

“So then demon prince; this is your game what’s the plan?” Sam asked.

“Baelfien is strong, very strong but not undefeatable. His greatest weakness is holy power which both Dan and Shaun wield. Both of your powers stem from your faith in Bahamut, the fact that his shadow is still alive means that so is he. Without Bahamut’s light his shadow would be cast into darkness and turn back into nothing. 

Anyways what I’m getting here is that you must have absolute faith in Bahamut for your power to reach its full potential. Believe in him and yourselves and you will find the power to win; were counting on both of you because against baelfien the rest of us will be practically useless. I know that you’re all strong but this is the lord of hell he got that way from raw power and intelligence against any other but holy creatures he would be undefeatable.

I’m going to teleport us in and we will have two seconds at most to react; Shaun if you have any long ranged holy spells use them as soon as we get inside. The only advantage we have is the element of surprise; do not waist it.”

When Andy finished talking he began to chant in a demonic tongue and a few moments later a red circle with unusual symbols all around it appeared in front of him. “Step inside the circle when you’re all ready. Sam and Ella you two will stay back with me and only if it looks like Shaun and Dan cannot handle Baelfien is when you will attack otherwise you will just get in the way. I will do what I can against him from a distance but my powers are limited against him.”

None of them entirely liked the plan but they all had to have faith in their friend Andy. He betrayed them before but that was not of his own will, he was being controlled by the demon inside and now he was trying to redeem himself as well as remove the corruption from him forever. They had little choice but help him; because that’s what friends do.

As soon as everyone was inside the circle it sprung to life and an instant later they were standing in front of Baelfien the lord of hell. Baelfien looked almost latterly like the devil from their world, over 15 feet tall, dark red skin, three heads, and entirely muscular. The friends didn’t take any time to notice their surroundings when Baelfien shouted, “Apprentice what is this!?”

Before Andy could even blink Shaun raised his staff high above his head and a powerful white light shot out covering Baelfien’s three heads entirely. The demon screamed in pain and tried shielding its eyes as Dan took the opportunity to charge at the demon. Ella however was faster and already transformed into her massive green nature beats form and rushed Baelfien. 

As Ella was right up to Baelfien who was still on his throne she unknowingly blocked out just a small ray of Shaun’s white light and that gave Baelfien just enough to see Ella and react. He stood up with impossible speed from his throne and using his free left arm smacked Ella just as she leapt at him. She was sent flying helplessly into the far off wall hitting it with a loud thud. 

Baelfien shot out a quick flame at Shaun forcing him to dive out of the way disrupting his blinding spell of light. Dan had made it to Baelfien by then but his attacks seemed to do nothing but slightly irritate the massive demon. His sword didn’t even break his skin when Baelfien simply kicked him and sent him flying into the opposite wall just like with Ella. 

Then Baelfien with his three heads started shooting a constant wave of searing flames out at Ella and Sam, Shaun, and Dan. They all managed to barley block the flames in time; Ella used a wind spell to keep the flames at bay just inches in front of her and Sam. Shaun used one of his invisible shield’s to guard himself and Dan put his large shield in front of him to block the flames. They were safe at the moment but Andy knew that Baelfien could keep those flames up for far longer than any of them could last; and Sam was in no position to make any attacks to distract them so Andy was all that was left to save them.

Calling upon as much energy as he could Andy put his hands close together as black lightning began crackling and storming around his palms. He kept calling up more energy storing up as much as he could in the palms of his hands until it was about to explode on him. Then Andy unleashed the lightning bolts aimed for Baelfien’s chest. 

In a violently frenzy the lightning hit Baelfien and coalesced his entire body forcing him to stop his flames and pushing him back down on his throne. The demon began to jerk around on his throne as Andy shouted; “Dan you have to infuse your blade with the power of the holy light otherwise you’re not going to scratch him. And Ella Sam you’ve both proven what I said earlier now get behind me that attack won’t last long and I only got one in me at best!”

As Ella and Sam began running over to Andy, Baelfien was already beginning to recover and shake off the attack. Shaun used the time to catch his breath and Dan threw his shield away and put his other hand on his sword and began quietly praying to himself. Just as Ella and Sam got behind Baelfien stood up shaking off the lightning attack and letting out a deafening roar which made everyone but Dan who was still praying cover their ears.

Shaun was fast to act and threw up an invisible barrier all around Baelfien. The demon lord tried raising his arms to smash at the barrier but they were pinned inside the invisible barrier. Shaun learned his lesson years ago about giving creatures much space inside his barriers. However Baelfien was far too powerful to let that’s top him; he quickly let energy build up inside of him and let it out in burst of violent red energy that shattered the barrier and sent Shaun flying a few feet backwards off his feet. 

Baelfien then raised his right hand with two fingers pointing at Shaun and cast a beam of red energy at him. Shaun was still recovering from the shockwave of his barrier being shattered and couldn’t get to his feet or even move fast enough to dodge the attack. Shaun prepared for the worst closing his eyes when he saw a white flash leap in front of him and he forced his eyes to stay open.

Dan was close enough to Shaun by the time Baelfien broke free and attacked that he could throw himself in between his friend and the attack. He swung his sword, which was now glowing pure white light, just as the beam of energy reached him and it ripped the beam apart; its energy faded harmlessly into the air. Dan never taking his eyes off Baelfien said, “Andy Bahamut has not abandoned you. If you have the same faith in him that you do in us then he will help your true light shine.” Then Dan charged at Baelfien and the two forces were locked in combat. 

Baelfien and Dan were at mostly even odds but Baelfien had the advantage of greater power and size. Shaun was too exhausted now to do much and Ella and Sam were practically useless against Baelfien. Andy knew he had one more massive attack in him but he also knew it wouldn’t be enough.

Andy didn’t know what to do as the situation was beginning to look ever hopeless for him when Dan’s words echoed back in his head again and again. Andy took one last look at his friends and decided he had no other choice; he closed his eyes, steadied his breath and began to silently pray to himself. “Bahamut, I know you don’t normally even acknowledge scum like me but if you can hear me, if you’re even there we need your help. You brought us here for a reason I know it wasn’t just t die so please give me anything.”

For a long moment there was silence and Andy opened his eyes again, and let out a big sigh. Then a faint voice echoed inside his head saying, “Believe in me. Believe in your friends. And believe in yourself and the flames of justice shall smite the wicked.” 

Andy was enlightened but confused at the same time, even if he did believe what good were flames against Baelfien? Andy knew fire could not harm the demon lord. “You must believe.” The voice echoed in his head again.

Andy hated the idea of putting everything into blind faith but he saw Shaun and Dan put their faith in Bahamut and it gave them extraordinary powers; but it wasn’t just faith in Bahamut it was faith in their friends. In themselves that gave them this power. 

If even for a moment Andy truly believed that they could all triumph today; and that was all that Andy needed. He put his right arm out and pointed his index and middle finger at Baelfien and said, “Flames of justice, I call upon you to smite the wicked and protect the good.” Then a small stream of white fire burst from Andy’s fingertips and hit Baelfien in his right shoulder. 

Baelfien screamed in pain but Andy’s attack didn’t stop there, he moved the stream of fire quickly across Baelfien’s arm and burned it off. The demons arm fell to the floor as Baelfien screamed in agony and covered his shoulder where the arm was burned off with his good hand. This gave Dan the opportunity he needed to slice at Baelfien’s tendon and bring the demon down to one knee. 

Dan prepared to bring his sword up through the demons chest but Baelfien was smart and as he fell to his knee he started shooting flames from his three mouths at Dan. Dan was forced to dive away but had to keep rolling as the flames followed after him. Andy then launched a massive ball of white fire at Baelfien’s heads. Baelfien turned its left most head and tried to block the fire bolt with his own flames; it only briefly delayed the inevitable.

When the white fireball hit Baelfien in the head it burned right through all three of his heads in a matter of seconds. The demon fell to the ground dead a moment later. Baelfien’s three heads were completely destroyed all that remained was its body which jerked a couple times then remained completely still. 

Dan sheathed his sword and gave Andy congratulations when he walked back to the group. Andy was still a little dumbfounded by this new found power of his and barley noticed when Sam asked, “Is he finished?”

“Y-yeah he will not be coming back from that.”

 

And while the friends rested and cheered in their victory Baelfien’s shadow begin to twist and turn as a pure black figure rose up from it. “Congratulations warriors of the light you have come an exceptionally long way since your first arriving here.” The shadowy figure said.

The friends turned their attention immediately to the strange creature and raised themselves in a defensive position.

“Truly Bahamut was right to put his faith in you five even if it did take you over a decade to kill my lackey.”

“Say what you want shadow, but we know that this lackey of yours was your first and only line of defense” Dan said. “You knew you could not take us all on your own so you used him to corrupt Andy and divide us so that you-”

“So that I may what? Kill you when you were alone?” The shadow creature interrupted. “If I was truly scarred of you I would have dealt with you years ago, I have had several opportunities to do so. No watching you all struggle to gain a power you would never wield, giving you a false hope of standing a chance against me, and even creating strife among you was all nothing more than a clever deception of mine. I knew from the very beginning about you and your mentor Shako.

In fact we met very briefly on your very first quest here, do you recall how at the end of that goblin quest of yours things went very dark? Well that was me just saying, hello. Since you have come so far I will give you some advice, you will never defeat me, you won’t even find out where I am so instead of wasting your lives use what little time you have of them to just enjoy life, go do your adventures; play the heroes whatever makes you happy.”

Then before anyone could respond the shadow creature began laughing hysterically and soon it faded into nothingness. For a minute all was silence after the shadow left then a voice from behind them said, “Well that was disturbing”

Everyone turned around expecting the shadow but instead they saw the demon that they freed from the prison earlier, the one that spoke to them saying weird things. The demon approached them slowly and casually as if they were not a threat to him. “Well I must say that was a very entertaining fight I’m glad I quit making a commotion earlier to come and see it.”

“Who are you?” Dan asked keeping his hand on his sword ready to pull it out at a moments notice.

The demon walked past the group and up to the fallen body of Baelfien and set it on fire before speaking again. “I do not have a title like you, I do not need one. But I was formally the ruler of hell until that shadow thing gave Baelfien substantial power to overthrow me. My own general betrayed me the moment he got the power to defeat me, I’m almost proud of him but he should have killed me off instead of letting me rot away.

Anyways enough small talk, I would have killed him and retaken my thrown in good time but you have saved me a lot of work and for this I shall allow you to leave my domain in one piece; and from the looks of you I would heavily consider this offer.”

When the demon stopped talking Baelfien’s body was nothing more than ash and the demon walked up to his throne and sat down on it. Then a strange oval shape started distorting the air in front of the friends and a moment later they could all see a dark alley through the oval shaped portal. The friends didn’t have to think twice, they were too exhausted to fight this demon so they took the quick path out of hell and stepped through the portal.


	11. The Vision Quest

Chapter Ten: The Vision Quest

 

The portal out of hell led the friends into a small fishing town where they went to the nearest Inn and just slept without even eating. Everyone slept through the day and way into the night waking up a couple hours before sunrise. The good part about them being in a fishing town was that everyone operated on an earlier schedule so even though it was very early in the morning they were still able to get a large breakfast from the Inn keepers. 

After breakfast Andy spoke up breaking the awkward silence among them all, “There’s something you all need to know before we set off again. While I was under Baelfien’s control I learned a great deal about shadow Bahamut, and I’m afraid to say he is right at our current power we cannot defeat him. However unknown to even Shako Bahamut left us behind special weapons, weapons of light that will drastically increase our powers and give us a fighting chance against Bahamut’s shadow. 

Unfortunately I’m afraid that I have no idea where these weapons are at. I do know where we can find Bahamut’s shadow though, back at the dragon temple where we defeated his fake there is a portal to his location. I don’t know anything about where he resides only that the portal in the temple is the only way there.”

“This information is of extraordinary help you have done great Andy. I shall go to the church and pray to Bahamut for more answers and then we shall continue our quest.” Dan said. Then he left the inn and set out to the church to pray.

“Well since were going to be waiting for Dan I might as well go replenish our traveling supplies we were running low on food and water so might as well stock up.” Shaun said. Then he too left, leaving Andy, Sam and Ella alone at the inn.

“You know I think I’m going to go for a swim actually, you boys have fun I’ll be back later” Ella said as she took off.

Andy and Sam sat alone in long awkward silence when Andy finally spoke up saying, “You know I don’t think I ever truly apologized to-”

“It’s fine” Sam interrupted. “You kinda showed us your entire life story back in hell and we could feel how much you deeply regretted your actions even if they were not your own. That’s all the apology we need.”

“I suppose so but you seem to still be upset about it.”

“It’s… that’s not it, there’s just something that’s been on my mind is all. I’ll share with everyone later though.”

After that the two went back to their awkward silence. It was another ten minutes until Sam spoke up again saying, “You know I think I am going to go take a nap while we wait for the others, wake me when they get.” With that Sam gave Andy a small smile, yawned then went to his room. 

 

After a few hours everyone had returned to the inn; Ella was the last one. Dan explained to everyone that he gave his prayer but they would just have to wait for an answer. The friends decided to head back out onto the road for a change of scenery while they waited for Bahamut to speak to them.

The friends spent a couple days on the road just walking or enjoying sceneries taking the time to enjoy the little things, something that they had not done in many years. One night while just laying outside under a clear sky eating dinner around a small camp fire Ella said, “So guys, what are your plans for when we defeat Shadow Bahamut and make it back home?” Ella said.

“You know I haven’t actually thought much about it.” Shaun replied.

Every one gave the same or a similar response except for Sam, who remained quite. Everyone’s attention was on him now. “Well how about you Sam what are your plans for when we return home?” Ella asked.

“About that” Sam said looking at no one in particular. “I have been meaning to tell everyone for a while now but this seems like the best time, I will not be returning back to earth.”

Everyone was startled by Sam’s response and most were too shocked to speak, so Sam continued. “I know that all you have to say are protests but I made this decision the moment that we arrived here. Truthfully I was always content to just adventure forth with all of you, I never really cared if we found our way back to earth I was simply enjoying all of our quests, even the ones where we barley escaped with our lives. 

The scars I carry on me are just another exciting adventure to be told to curious citizens of the next town I stop in, always venturing forward. This place is my home, destiny brought me here for a reason, and it’s because I belong here. I will still help you guys defeat shadow Bahamut and do everything in my power to get you to you’re homes but that is where we will part ways.”

Ella practically exploded at Sam’s speech as she starting yelling at him, “You inconsiderate-” 

Dan cut her off before she could go any further by putting his hand over her mouth. Then he said, “If this is what Sam wants then as his friends we should respect his wishes. And it is clear that you have made your mind up entirely and there is nothing we can do to convince you otherwise?”

“No, my decision is final.”

Dan sighed and said, “Than we shall have one last grand adventure before parting ways for good. But for now how about we gaze at the stars until we’re all calm enough to sleep.” Dan then kicked out the fire and everyone looked up into the sky until sleep caught them.

 

Later that same night while asleep everyone had a vision in their dreams about a location and a unique object hidden to all others but them within that location. Sam, Shaun, and Dan all bolted awake at the same time from their dream visions. Sam looked over to his friends and asked, “What was that just now, I saw… a mountain peak and on top there was a silvery white bow.”

“Yes, me and Shaun had a similar vision of our weapons except ours was at a church” Dan responded. “I believe this was the work of Bahamut showing us what we need to defeat his shadow; but I fear that our weapons are in different locations.”

“Then we should split up, my vision showed that I should go north to find the mountain I seek and that I would somehow know it was the right one when I arrived there” Sam said. “It will be quicker for us to go separately instead of making several trips around the lands; unless you have a better suggestion?”

“No” Dan said. “You’re right this way would be quicker and the longer we wait the stronger our enemy becomes, but where shall meet back up?”

“Bahamut told me that it’s best to not to group back up until the final moment back at the dragon temple. He said he would guide us there after getting the weapons.”

Andy and Ella began waking up now just as the sky was slowly brightening. “Look I think my weapon is the furthest away so it will take me the longest to grab it so I should be going. You two stay behind long enough to enlighten Andy and Ella then immediately head out; and Dan, I recommend getting some new armor and a shield on the way.”

Before Shaun or Dan could say anything more Sam was already running by foot with only a few of his possession to the nearest town. Shaun believed he was also in a rush to avoid Ella’s drama but he did not question it. As Ella and Andy woke up they saw Dan and Shaun packing up their things.

“I assume you had a dream about a strange location and an unknown object hidden in it just for you?” Shaun said.

Ella and Andy looked at each other then back to Shaun. “Yeah actually we did but how did you know?” Ella asked.

“It was the message from Bahamut, the one we had been waiting for. With these objects we will have the power to defeat shadow Bahamut. However time is not on our side so its best we split up to find what were looking for, Sam has already ran ahead to acquire his, and me and Dan will be leaving shortly too.”

“That jerk! He didn’t even say goodbye.” Ella said to no one in particular. “Which way did he go I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.”

“Ella calm down, Sam has to go all the way to the mountains for his weapon, it will likely take him the longest so he cannot afford to waste time letting you scold him.”

“Yes I should be leaving soon too I have a ways to travel myself” Andy said. “But where should we meet back up after acquiring what we need?”

“Bahamut said that after getting our object that he will guide us back together in time to face his shadow.”

By the time they finished talking Dan had stripped himself of all of his armor and took only his necessary possessions along with his sword belt and sword. “You’re not going to need that stuff?” Ella asked him as she saw what little Dan was taking with them.

“I need to travel as light as possible mine and Shaun’s trip will be by foot for half of the way; the first town we will be passing is our halfway point; besides most of my armor was damaged beyond repair against the demon lord so now its only excess weight.” Dan said.

“He is right” Shaun said. “If I didn’t travel light, as it already is then I too would be leaving behind as much as I could here for greater speed.”

“Well this is going to be the longest most boring couple weeks of my life” Andy said. The friends smiled, then hugged each other farewell and went off on their separate ways.

 

Shaun and Dan were making quick progress on their trip to the church, where they would find their holy weapons. They stopped only five times a day, 3 for meals and two for a small rest. When they arrived in the first small town they had seen for days, they knew this was the halfway point of their journey. Unfortunatley the town being so small had no stables or horses from which they could get a faster ride so after stocking up on supplies they continued still on foot.

 

Bishop Ulley walked around the great Anderhill church as he did every sunny day to pass the time. He was blind since birth and orphaned at the church as an infant. His former tutor took pity on the blind young boy and knew that there was an extremely limited amount that he could do to survive so he took on the blind boy as his successor to guard the two sacred objects from their lord Bahamut.

It was a simple task that had been passed down from bishop to bishop since the founding of the Anderhill church. For many generations the church has held these two objects always waiting for their would be owners, the object would glow a bright light when the true heroes came to claim them but many would be heroes came by and never did the object glow. Bishop Ulley feared that he would not live to see the heroes come claim the holy staff and sword like so many others or that he would even know if it was them when they came.

But Ulley did not give up hope he would not name a new guardian of the holy items until he could no longer walk around in the sun which he feared would be soon. Then as Ulley was making his way back out of the church’s garden some one called out to him, “Excuse me bishop Ulley?”

The voice was deep and strong but gentle at the same time. Ulley turned to face the direction the voice had sounded from and said, “Yes how may I help you?”

Dan and Shaun looked at each other briefly, surprised that the bishop guarding the holy weapons was blind. “My name is Dan, and my friend with me is Shaun; I am a paladin and he is an artificer. We have come on a mission for the holy sword and holy staff left for us by Bahamut.”

“Well alright then right this way” Ulley said as he led them through the church. After living in the church for so long Ulley though blind knew how to navigate it purely from memory and never faltered even when approaching the stairs he knew exactly where to place his foot as if he was not blind. Ulley did not know if these two would be able to claim the weapons or not, in fact they had been the first people to come by asking for the sacred items in 3 generations of guardians; however when someone who was acknowledge by the church did come by to ask for them he was obligated to show them.

As bishop Ulley led the heroes down to the crypts where he hid the objects for safety he was completely unaware of the shimmering white light in the dark area. And as the two heroes came closer to the sacred objects the more they glowed and still Ulley being blind was completely unaware of the phenomenon happening around him. When Ulley grabbed the sword and staff that hadn’t been touched in over twenty years they felt warm in his hands and smooth, like someone had been dusting them.

For a moment Ulley thought that someone had been down there and found the sacred objects and cleaned them off, but the warmth in them… the crypts were cold no matter the season so how could they get so warm? Then a realization came to Ulley, “Gentlemen, may I please ask to know, are these sacred objects glowing in some manner?”

Dan and Shaun barley heard the question as they were too memorized by the brilliant light. Shaun was the first to snap out of it and said, “Yes Bishop, they are glowing a beautiful white light; the likes of which I have never before scene in my life.”

Ulley was ecstatic at the news; it was true the heroes to whom the objects were created for have arrived. After so many generations of bishops guarding them it was under Ulley’s care that the heroes had come to claim them. The bishop was so caught up in his own excitement he almost didn’t hand over the sword and staff until Dan cleared his throat rather loudly to catch the bishop’s attention.

“Ahh yes my apologies hero’s” Ulley said as he handed the sword and staff over. “I do not know what sort of task it is that you require such great items to overcome but whatever it is, it must be monumental. If there is anything I or the church can do for you then please do not hesitate to ask.”

As Dan fixed in his knew sword replacing it with the current one he had he realized he still needed armor and a shield. “Well actually I would like to know of the best blacksmith in the city” Dan said. “I am in need of the finest armor and shield available for a paladin here.”

Ulley chuckled a little and said, “It seems fate has foreseen to even the smallest of details. The grand bishop’s son as it so happens was also a paladin, one of great stature; alas he had passed away some years ago. However in honor of his memory the Anderhill church has put up his armor, shield and sword in a display case. This armor is made out of platinum, one of the strongest and rarest metals in the world. Perhaps you could sway the bishop to lend you this armor and shield in your endeavor; though I doubt he would have right to deny the heroes to whom have claim over the sacred objects.”

 

After Dan and Shaun took off on foot Andy teleported away and Ella was left alone at their former camp site. Half of all their stuff was still sitting there but all of it was excess weight to everyone. Ella carried nothing but the clothes on her back considering she could transform into any creature to suit whatever her needs. 

She felt more alone than ever, this was the first time since arriving in the world that the friends had all split up, and though it had only been just a few moments ago she knew that they would all be apart for a long while. A large part of her wanted to chase after Sam and chew him out for leaving before saying goodbye but she knew it was also so that she wouldn’t be alone. So in the end Ella decided that the sooner she found what she needed to find the sooner she would be reunited with her friends, and she transformed into the fastest bird she knew of and flew high into the sky. 

Ella flew for half a day until she finally stopped to rest for the first time. She didn’t know exactly where she was going... only that it was the right way. She stayed in her bird form and followed the smell of berries until she came to a berry bush and started pecking at them around the thorns. The berries provided her with nourishment as well as refreshment and she decided it would be enough to keep her going until sunset where she would then transform again and sniff out some more food and water.

Finally after nine days of long exhausting flight Ella came to a deep forest mixed in with so much life. It was more than just trees and bushes there was river streams running through it, caves forged in more open areas, and flowers of so many beautiful rich colors of blue, red, and purple. Ella felt like she could settle down her for years and be happy; seeing the beautiful forest made Ella think. Sam was right to a point they still had so much left of this world to explore and there could be many more places as beautiful as this just waiting to be discovered.

Then Ella began to think maybe, just maybe they all didn’t have to return to earth right away, maybe they could stay a little bit longer an extra decade or two then go back home. For the time being however Ella pushed those though aside and focused on her task at hand; finding a tree which contained what she would need. She knew nothing about the tree, its size, age nothing but she knew that she was close to it and as she continued walking through the forest she knew that she almost found it.

When Ella came to a stand in front of an ordinary tree she knew that this is where she was supposed to be at. Now Ella’s only instinct was that this tree is the spot she was looking for, but nothing more. Ella looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary then she out her right hand on the tree and at first contact the tree began glowing.

The light was dim and only light green but the enter tree itself was glowing not just where she touched it. Within a minute the place where Ella touched the tree began to simple open up the bark partying ways as if going inside itself. The tree stopped changing when there was a small hole inside as the dim green light began gathering to the tree hole.

By the time all of the light was gathered to the tree hole it was now almost blinding and dark green. The light forged itself into an emerald amulet that now sat in the hole waiting for Ella to take it. Slowly Ella reached out and grabbed the amulet and as soon as she did she could feel a strange power growing inside her, it was immense but not overwhelming. The amulet had a small chain around it to which Ella used to fasten it into a necklace. And with the amulet safe around her neck she transformed into a bird, glad to see that the amulet changed its size with her, and then took to the skies flying to where she felt she would reunite with her friends.

 

Andy stood outside the massive dragon temple at the foot of the stairs waiting for his friends. The unpleasant memories of his horrible betrayal that day replayed over and over but Andy ignored them for the most part. This time, things will be different today him and his friends nightmare ends and they can go home. 

Dan and Shaun soon came into Andy’s sight walking down the road to the dragon temple. Dan seemed to glow like a pearl in the sun, was this new armor part of the holy weapon left behind by Bahamut for him? Andy would soon find out. When the two got to a closer distance Andy waved at them and welcomed them saying he had gotten there only a couple hours before them.

“So shining like a brand new pearl in the sun, is that armor what you were looking for?” Andy asked.

Dan smiled and said, “No, the sword and Shaun’s staff are what we were originally looking for. However this armor was a gift form the church… after some persuasion to the grand priest that without it I would be destroyed almost instantly by the very evil I’m trying to save the world from. Reluctantly the priest agreed given that both me and Shaun here are part of the chosen heroes of our god but he said to get it back to him without a scratch.” Dan winked at the end of his last sentence and the three of them laughed a good hearted laugh. 

“It’s ok as long as you avoid the claws I don’t think you will get it scratched but you know don’t trip over yourself or anything.” Andy said in a bit of a sarcastic tone. “So what’s that thing made out of anyways?”

“The armor is made purely out of adamantite, the world’s strongest and lightest metal. The holy sword however, it seems to weigh nothing though I feel as if I could cut this armor through with one slice.”

Andy let out a whistle then turned to Shaun and said, “How about you Mr. White staff, what’s that thing made out of wood?”

“It feels like the smoothest wood I have ever touched but holding it I also feel a great sense of power from inside” Shaun said.

“And what about you what has Bahamut left behind for you?” Dan asked.

Andy pulled his sleeves up and held out his arms in front of him. Attached to his wrists were two silver bracelets. “They were just sitting there in a pool of lava at the bottom of a volcano if you can believe that.”

“I wouldn’t believe it if you paid me a purse full of gold.” A voice called out from behind them.

They turned to see Ella standing a few feet behind them. “You guys are really too easy to sneak up on” She said.

“Well when you can transform into tiny soundless birds and back in less than the blink of an eye I wouldn’t call it hard.” 

Ella hugged her friends then said, “Where’s Sam?”

“Still on his way we presume. We are simply going to have to wait.”

Andy looked up to the top of the stairs then said, “How about we wait further back, I can sense Shadow Bahamut in there and I really rather not be this close if he decides to bust out and attack us.”

“Speaking of if he is really inside there then why has he not come out to challenge us yet?” Ella asked.

“Simple he still be lives we don’t stand a chance and probably figured it will be more fun when were at our strongest. But still it is a good idea to wait some distance away.”

 

And so the friends did wait camping several hundred feet away from the stairs to the temple. Hours passed slowly and it was another three days before Sam showed up. He looked almost excited and had a completely new set of clothes. They all greeted him with a big group hug and after a little more last minute preparations they went to the dragon temple ready to face their destiny.


	12. Shadows of Friendship

Chapter Eleven: Shadows of Friendship

 

Andy, Dan, and Sam all got up to the massive doors to push them open. Dan being the strongest went in the middle to push both sides. Slowly the doors opened up then without aid from the guys the doors began opening on their own. Everyone then prepared their weapons and spells right away.

 

For a brief moment everything just went black after the doors were opened then Shaun woke up. His head was resting on his arms lying on a table; his left arm sleeve was covered in drool. After taking a moment to realize he was somewhere else entirely, Shaun bolted his head up in alert.

He looked around franticly searching for any signs of danger but instead he saw his friends all sitting at the same table around him, mostly just starring at him. They were back to their normal selves all at Josh’s in his basement the day they were swept up into the book.

“I know the introduction is a little lame but come on I have been making literally all our campaigns since we started playing” Josh said.

Shaun looked around the room a second time before looking at Josh. “How did we get back here, last thing I remember we were opening the doors then I woke up here? Did we win are we free?”

Josh looked around the table at his friends then Sam spoke up, “Did you have something strange before you came over here? Maybe tried a new drink in the fridge that didn’t have a label?”

“What the hell are you talking about? The book how did we escape from the book?” Shaun asked.

“Shaun what are you talking about? Look its cool if you want to tell us about your crazy dreams but try actually telling us first before insisting that we have any idea what you’re talking about.” Andy said.

Shaun looked around at everyone but truly none of them did know what he was talking about so he stood up and started telling them everything that happened to them starting with the day Josh told them about the book. Everyone just starred at him incredulously through out his story and when he finished Ella got up and walked over to him placing her hand on his forehead.

“Well he doesn’t have a fever” she said. 

Shaun pushed her away and turned to Josh, “Josh you didn’t happen to go to the book store and pick up a blue book with a dragon on it titled ‘The Legacy of Bahamut’ did you?”

Josh looked away from Shaun for a moment then said, “Yes I just got it earlier today, I was actually going to get copies for everyone because I found it so intriguing and stash them away as early Christmas presents but the shop keeper only had one copy so I had him order me some more.” 

Then Josh went into his back pack which was placed only a few feet away from the table and pulled out the book. Shaun quickly grabbed the book from Josh and held it up to everyone saying, “This book right here, See it! It’s the one we all get sucked into and we go on this magical adventure to save this land…” Shaun slowly stopped talking after the first sentence. “None of you believe me do you?” 

Half of his friends were just starring at him wide eyed, except for Ella who was half paying attention to him and half to the other end of her phone call. Shaun just tossed the book back to Josh and sat down in frustration. After Ella was done with her phone call everyone went upstairs leaving Shaun alone in the basement to vent or whatever he needed. It wasn’t for several minutes when they returned and they weren’t alone when they did, they bought Shaun’s parents to take him home.

Shaun was irritated by this but he didn’t throw a fit like some immature child who didn’t get his way. He handled things like an adult and then he realized he was an adult, completely mature, articulate, and a better thinker through his years of life experience. Perhaps he could use this to his advantage to show everyone his new found maturity, life experience and everything all within mere minutes to the rest of the world; he thought to himself. 

Shaun’s parents didn’t take him home right away instead they took him to the doctor to have his head examined. Shaun thought he could use this to his advantage, being an artificer back in the other world he learned a lot about medicine, and the effects of even common herbs, the human anatomy and anything that he might be able to school his doctor on. Maybe doing so will begin to show the people around him that there was a possibility that what he was saying was true. 

When Shaun got to the doctor they checked him out and he stuck to his plan about schooling the doctor and nurses or anyone who he came in contact too about medicines, human anatomy and whatever he could think of. His plan worked but not they way he wanted, everyone just saw an incredibly bright young man who did a lot of studying and probably wanted to become a great doctor when he grew up. 

After all that failed Shaun panicked and started blabbering on about how he got his knowledge from the world inside that book, how he learned how to mend wounds using special herbs, and somewhere along the lines he let magic slip up because the nurses were calling him the future fairy doctor. Meanwhile his real doctor then prescribed him some anxiety and paranoia medications and suggested that he take a break from things like video games, or comics for a while.

When Shaun returned home his parents immediately took away all his video games, comics, and even his books, leaving him only with his television. Shaun didn’t acre much though he needed a way to prove he wasn’t going mad so he sat down and just meditated. After a couple hours of straight meditation he was interrupted by his parents calling to him for dinner. He took his medication and flushed them all down the toilet then went to the dinner table and ate in complete silence still trying to figure out what to do. He ignored all of his parent’s comments or questions which led to him being grounded but he still didn’t care. 

School came around but Shaun was having a nightmare from the other world and slept through most of his alarm so he was a few hours late and didn’t make it until lunch time. He was the entire schools laughing stock as somehow one of the students overheard one of his friends talking about his mental breakdown over the weekend and it spread like wild fire. The schools constant mockery only aided Shaun’s belief in that otherworldly adventure and soon he started having visions of it in the middle of class. 

Sometimes he would see things from the otherworld so vividly like he never left it other times he would be attacked by monsters. These visions became so frequent that he had a total breakdown in the middle of class and his parents couldn’t handle it any longer they sent him to an asylum for young adults. But even the medication and so called safety of the asylum couldn’t keep the visions and nightmares from the otherworld at bay as they still haunted Shaun indefinitely.

Andy’s head shot up and he started gasping for air like he was missing out on it his whole life. Everything was pitch black around him and he panicked wailing his arms around until he hit his lamp placed by his bed side. It was an old lamp that Andy had his whole life and he recognized it right away. For a moment he thought it was impossible until he felt the lamp and inadvertently flipped the switch on it illuminating the room in a soft light. 

Andy was back home in his bedroom, lying on his bed. The first thing Andy did was run to his bathroom to look at himself in the mirror. To his astonish he was completely human, normal skin, hair, no horns, not only that he was also young. Andy splashed some water on his face then feeling extremely drained went and sat back down on his bed. 

“Could it all have been just a dream?” Andy thought to himself. He spent half an hour just thinking about everything that had happened in that world when Andy decided to get up and survey his home. His house was exactly the way it was before, run down, a giant mess everywhere, and a single parent fast asleep in their own bedroom quick to neglect Andy. 

Andy’s home made him depressed so he threw on some pants and shoes and took a walk outside to clear his mind. The sun was starting to rise and he would have school in about an hour, perhaps there he could ask his friends about the dream he had. The walk to school alone and the cool morning air helped calm Andy’s nerves.

When Andy got to school he had almost an hour before the first classes would start and there were not many students around at the time so it made it easier to search for his friends. It was almost half an hour before Andy finally found Sam. He was hanging around the lockers talking to some other kids that Andy didn’t recognize. Andy approached him and said, “Sam, Hey I need to talk to you about something.”

Sam looked over at Andy with contempt and annoyance at him coming up to him so boldly. After eyeing him up and down a bit Sam said, “Uhh look pal I don’t know who you are but I’m busy here so, shoo.” 

Sam went back to talking to the other kids and completely ignoring Andy. Andy was about to pull Sam away form them to try to talk to him alone when he saw Ella’s familiar face further down the hall from the corner of his eye. Andy decided that Sam would unlikely be going anywhere until the first bell rang so he left him to chase after Ella. When Andy caught up to Ella and tried to talk to her she gave him a similar look of unfamiliarity that Sam gave him.

“I’m sorry who are you?” Ella asked politely.

Andy recognized the tone she had it was the same one she used when she didn’t want to be rude to someone but didn’t want to spend any more time with them either. Andy also ignored Ella’s question and said, “Ella Sam is acting weird and I can’t find the others anywhere.”

Ella just gave Andy a puzzled look as if she had know idea who Sam or these ‘others’ were that he was talking about. The two starred at each other in awkward silence for a moment longer then Ella turned and proceeded to walk away. Andy grabbed her by the arm as gently as he could to stop her and said, “Ella you do know who I am don’t you?”

Ella glared at him a little and pulled her arm away then said, “Yeah you’re the creep who needs to leave me alone.” 

“Babe is this guy bothering you?” A deep voice called out from behind Andy and Ella. The two of them turned around to see a larger student with big build walking up to them. He had blonde hair and wore slightly more fancy clothes then most other students. Andy recognized him as Thomas, a buff creep that was always hitting on Ella and making her uncomfortable.

Thomas walked up to Ella casually and put his arm around her shoulder. Andy clenched his fist and was about ready to kick him away from her when Ella said, “Yes he is actually.” 

Andy was so surprised by Ella’s response that he didn’t even have time to react to Thomas walking up to him and shoving him to the floor. Thomas began to talk insulting Andy but was interrupted as Andy got up from the ground with incredible speed and uppercut Thomas. Thomas was a big and heavy person but Andy hit him so hard that he came off the ground a bit and landed hard on his back. 

As Thomas rubbed at his Jaw and started getting to his feet a crowd of students had somehow already circled around them cheering them on to fight. Andy had developed a fighter stance, one he had learned from years of fighting in the otherworld; despite his being a magic user Sam decided it wouldn’t hurt for him to learn hand to hand combat skills and he trained with him for years on it. 

Thomas charged at Andy as if to tackle him but Andy leaped up in the air a bit and put his right knee up with as much force as he could. His knee connected to Thomas’s Jaw with such force that it stopped his charge, made a loud cracking sound and sent him back to the ground. The moment Andy heard the cracking noise he knew that he had broken Thomas’s jaw bone. Thomas writhed around in pain on the ground trying to scream but his broken jaw made it difficult. 

Andy wanted to keep beating up Thomas, he wanted to take his anger and frustration out on him but instead he ran. He left the school not wanting to deal with security guards, and the principal and detention. Andy didn’t know where to go now so he just went home.

When Andy got home he slammed the door shut and leaned back against it trying to figure things out. He only got a brief moment of thought when his dad shouted at him for slamming the door. Andy knew his dad had stayed home to get drunk and watch tv but he didn’t want to deal with him much either so he headed to his room ignoring his dads inquiry about why he wasn’t at school. Half a minute after making it to his room Andy’s dad burst through the door looking drunk and extremely angry. 

Andy’s dad was shouting at him now, “Do you understand what I’m saying you piece of garbage, you do not ignore me.”

Andy turned to glare at his father and said, “Why don’t you get passed out on the couch you drunken loser.” Andy’s dad barley let Andy finish speaking when he came up to him raised his right hand and smacked Andy on the face with the back of his hand as hard as he could. Andy stumbled back a bit but was still standing. This wasn’t the first time his dad had beaten him when he was drunk and angry… but this time there would be a far different result. 

Andy stepped forward closer to his father then raised his leg and kicked him in the stomach as hard as he could. His father was sent flying back a few feet until hitting the ground. Andy’s father got up a moment later and threw his empty beer bottle at Andy. Andy was more prepared this time and caught the bottle in his hand then threw it back at him. The bottle smashed on his fathers face cutting it up. Andy then tackled his father and started rapidly punching him across the face. 

Andy thought back to all the times his dad hit him and that fueled his rage as he continued to pummel him. Finally Andy found the strength inside him to stop and his fathers face was a bloody mess. Andy was breathing heavily as he stood up and tossed his father a towel and then a phone. “Clean yourself up and call a doctor.” Andy said as he walked away.

With his friends acting strange, his home now even more broken then before Andy had know idea where to go so he just walked. Part of him was panicking the other part rejoicing in what he did to his dad. Right now Andy didn’t care about all of this crazy stuff that was happening, right now to him it just felt good to be alive. 

 

The buzzing sound of an Alarm woke Ella up from her deep slumber. She shot up from her bed sweating, and looking around in a moment of panic. She was back in her room at her house on earth but how? She thought to herself. Ella got out of bed and ran to her mirror to check herself out.

She was human again, younger, a teenager; it was like no time had passed in her world, but how did she get back? “Ella, Sam is here to walk you to school are you up yet?” Ella’s mom called out to her.

Ella ran as quickly as she could to the living room where Sam was there waiting for her; he was human too, wearing normal clothes and had his backpack strapped on his back. He grinned at her and let out a light chuckle then said, “We got plenty of time before school but I like to walk slow, so try not to take more then half an hour this morning ok?”

Ella realized she was still in her pajamas only after Sam finished talking. She starred at him for a moment in awkward silence wanting to ask him a million questions but decided she didn’t want to look any more foolish then she already did. So Ella turned around and quickly ran back to her room, she grabbed some clothes from her closet and dresser than hopped into the shower. When she finished in the shower and getting dressed she grabbed her backpack and ran outside with Sam.

As soon as they shut the door behind them Ella faced Sam and said, “Ok what the hell is going on here? How did we get back to earth, did you guys beat Bahamut’s shadow after I was knocked unconscious or something?”

Sam frowned at Ella then put his hand on her forehead for a moment. “Well you don’t seem to have a fever, so I’m going to guess that this was some sort of dream you had?”

“Does Bahamut mean anything to you?” Ella asked.

“Of course he is the god of justice in the Dungeons and dragons world. Are you practicing to be a Dungeon master or something? I’m sure Josh could use a break after all these years of being our Dungeon master.”

“Do you really remember nothing from the otherworld?”

“Ella, if your not feeling alright you can go back to bed, I’m sure your parents will allow you a sick day after all your hard work and good grades.”

Ella didn’t know what else to say, if Sam had no idea what she was talking about then something must have happened to him after waking up. Maybe it happened to her too, maybe the magic of that world was wearing off and gradually she too would forget everything about the place. She then decided the only sure way too know would be to ask her other friends about it; so she started walking at a fast pace towards school.

Sam made a short jog to catch up with Ella then kept at her walking pace not saying anything more and grabbed her by the hand as they walked. Ella blushed at this then went to pull her hand away until she saw Sam smiling at her casually. This made Ella forget everything briefly and she decided against pulling her hand away and just enjoyed it.

By the time the two got to school it was half an hour until the first bell which gave Ella some time to track down the others. She found them easily they were all hanging out in their usual spot. Unfortunately though when Ella tried asking them about the otherworld even Josh none of them knew what she was talking about; they didn’t even remember anything about them supposed to being in a comma. This disturbed Ella a bit but when Sam came up and they all started hanging out and acting like they used to before any of that stuff with the book Ella calmed down a lot and started to enjoy herself.

Then the first bell rang and everyone had to split up to go to class. Ella was only ten feet from her first class so she didn’t need to go far, she just stood there watching her friends walk away and disappear into the crowded halls. Sam was the last to leave but before he went he leaned down and pressed his lips against Ella’s. This made Ella’s face glow bright red but even then Ella didn’t push away from Sam, she just stood there and enjoyed it until Sam pulled back and jogged away before he was late too his class.

 

Through the first half of the entire school day all Ella could think about was when Sam kissed her; it felt nice, and right. At lunch she went to her normal table with everyone else. There was only one empty chair at the table which in a few minutes Sam filled up, he kissed her on the cheek as he sat down and Ella turned away from her friends out of shyness. 

“Hey you two love birds be careful, if the principal catches you making out on school grounds it’s an automatic detention.” Shaun said.

“Come on we’ve only been dating a couple weeks now I think were entitled to kiss anywhere, isn’t that right sweetie?” Sam said as he grabbed Ella’s hand and looked at her. 

Ella blushed more and then shot up from her chair and said, “Excuse me I have to go to the restroom.” Then she hurried out of the lunchroom and to the restroom. When Ella got to the restroom she sat on one of the toilets and put her ands in her face trying to figure things out.

“Was she really back on earth?” She thought to herself. “She and Sam had been dating but it was only for a couple weeks he said. There wasn’t anything wrong with it she had always wanted him to ask her out but why couldn’t she remember it?” Ella let out a big sigh then decided even if she couldn’t figure everything out it wasn’t all bad, she was reunited with her friends, she is dating Sam, no one is in any danger, and her only price is a couple weeks of memory loss. 

Ella got back to the lunchroom and started settling into things a little bit easier now that she accepted them. After school Sam walked Ella home and held her hand all the way there. He asked her if she was feeling alright because she was acting so strange all day but she just said it was a horrible nightmare and it would pass in a few days. Sam accepted the answer and the two enjoyed the rest of the walk in silence with Ella leaning into Sam. When they got to Ella’s house she gladly kissed Sam and then waved him goodbye.

Ella spent the rest of the day smiling; this was the best she had ever felt in her life. And the next day was even better; it was Friday so only one more day of school then she could spend the entire weekend just hanging out with her friends like she used to. The day seemed to pass by an instance for her and she and Sam went back to her house after school and finished their homework early as possible so they could cuddle up and watch a movie together.

Saturday came and Ella went over to Josh’s and all of them played several different board games for hours, laughing, messing around, and just having fun. The hours turned into days for Ella and her life felt just so perfect. It had been a month now since Ella woke up back on earth and though she stilled remembered everything from the otherworld perfectly she ignored it and chose to forget about it as best she could and move on with her life.

On a Sunday after a wonderful date with Sam, Ella came home around 10 p.m. feeling exhausted. She crawled into bed with the stuffed animal Sam had won for her at the fair and happily drifted off to sleep. Soon though a nightmare filled her dreams and made her heart race, she tossed around in bed trying to wake up, then she heard the loud sound of Sam shouting at her, “Ella, stop this isn’t you. You have to wake up!” 

Ella bolted up from her bed struggling to find air and covered with sweat. She was looking around but could barley see anything in her dark room; so she flipped on the light switch. But her room was empty and she was all alone. Despite the fact she swore Sam was right next to her yelling at her. Ella rubbed her face, tired and she went to flip her light switch and crawl back into bed when in a flash her room was gone, replaced by a massive hall and enormous structures. Sam was there too but he wasn’t human, he was an Eladrin and covered in many small wounds holding his bow in front of him as a shield. 

Then as quickly as the environment had come it was gone and Ella was back in her room again; wide awake and crying. Even though it was only for an instance she knew exactly what that flash of the otherworld was. It broke her heart to admit it but she couldn’t get away with saying it was just a dream, this perfect life back on earth was the dream; she hadn’t escaped the otherworld at all she was still in it, and Sam was in mortal danger.


	13. Mind Games

Chapter Twelve: Mind Games

 

After the doors were open Sam grabbed his bow and prepared an arrow. The inside of the temple was exactly the same as he remembered it before except this time it was completely empty. “Alright guys shadow Bahamut could be lurking anywhere so we should go back to back to cover all angles even the ceiling.” Sam said as he slowly walked forward surveying everything around him with suspicion. 

When none of his friends answered him Sam looked back, and no sooner than he did was he attacked by Ella in her wolf form. The attack came by complete surprise and Sam barley got away with a large scratch on his arm. He didn’t have any more time until Andy launched a fireball at Sam; who barley dived out of the way in time. Sam started running away to get some distance and never stop movie but also stole a glance at his friend’s eyes; all of them were hollow and empty like they had no souls.

All except Dan who was on one knee struggling with something, black blood started oozing from Dan’s forehead and Sam couldn’t bare to watch any longer. Sam was running a full sprint in the opposite direction of his friends now when he had the sudden instinct to make a sharp turn left. He did and no sooner did a bolt of black lightning scorch the ground where he had been just a split second ago. Sam turned around to face his friends again with an arrow ready to be launched but then cursed at himself; he couldn’t hit them anywhere that wouldn’t leave any serious damage and somehow just grazing them seemed like it wouldn’t do a thing.

Sam put his arrow back into his holster and ran back towards his friends, Ella was there to meet him lashing out at him with her jaws trying to snap around his feet but he flipped around in the air just dodging over her. When he landed he was tackled to the ground by Dan. Sam went to kick Dan off him but Dan came out of the tackle into a roll coming to his feet and turned away from Sam to face the others with his shield raised in front of him his sword still sheathed. 

Before Sam could ask if Dan was himself he said, “Shaun was fighting back like I did but he lost and was about to trap you.” Dan stopped talking a moment to look back at Sam who was still lying on the ground then went back to his defensive position. “Are you alright?”

Sam got to his feet and stood next to Dan both of them in defensive position waiting to see what their friends would do next. “Do you know how to reach them in there?” Sam asked.

“No, I think shadow Bahamut specifically tried controlling all but you because you have no telepathic potential and are also the least armored, you can only dodge for so long and our friends are only holding back for so long soon I fear shadow Bahamut will have total control of them and we will be at a much greater disadvantage.” 

As if in response to Dan’s worry; Shaun lifted his staff high and started shining a blinding light from the end of it. Sam by reflex turned his head away from the light and Dan jumped in front of Sam with his shield up first before shielding his eyes from the light. As soon as Dan turned his eyes away from the light a powerful force hit against his shield and sent him sprawling to the ground several feet away from Sam. 

Sam turned his head back still squinting from the light that was fading fast as Ella had leaped at him. Sam barley had enough time to put his bow in front of him as Ella landed on Sam knocking the breath out of his lungs. Sam held his bow in Ella’s mouth; she was still in her wolf form and kept trying to get her jaws around his throat. He struggled to keep her at bay and shouted, “Ella, stop this isn’t you. You have to wake up!”

For a brief instant Ella stopped trying to kill Sam in a confused daze then went back to her ferocity; but Sam used that instant to twist his bow, still in Ella’s mouth, to the side and throw off her balance enough for him to overpower her. The two rolled two the side struggling and when Sam got his toes planted on the ground he made a desperate leap forward through Ella. Sam barley escaped her but her claws cut his legs and Sam was now limping back as Ella got to her feet. 

Ella crouched down low getting ready to pounce on top of Sam; getting ready for the kill. Sam’s injured legs prevented him from leaping out of the way faster than Ella could pounce or from him running. Slowly Sam backed away, he knew if Ella didn’t get a hold of herself soon she would rip him apart, in her wolf form she was much stronger than he was and he wouldn’t’ hold out long without good distance between them or trying to hurt her. Sam could still shoot her with an Arrow but he couldn’t live with himself if he ever hurt Ella even if it was just a scratch he cared for her more than all the others.

Then before Sam could even finish his thoughts about how to defend himself from her attack Ella lunged at Sam with great speed and ferocity. The world seemed to slow down for Sam himself included, Ella was coming to kill him and he wasn’t prepared busy thinking of other things; this would be his end he though to himself. But then just inches form Sam Ella was hit hard with the side of a massive shield and she was sent flying several feet away.

“Dan what’d you do that for!?” Sam shouted in surprise and shock. “Ella is-“

“Ella can take it!” Dan interrupted putting himself between Sam and the others. “She will survive a small bruise, but you won’t survive a torn out throat. Listen we have to start counterattacking if we want to have any chance. Our friends might not break the mind control anytime soon and we can’t last much longer. It doesn’t need to be lethal just something to slow them down.”

“What are you proposing?” Sam asked with a growing a growing suspicion of Dan.

“Maybe these light weapons can help break the hold on our friend if they cut scratched by them, their magic might flow into their minds and help fend off the invasion.”

“Were going to need our friends at full health if we want to take on shadow Bahamut if they get injured like us then we stand no chance.”

A massive fireball exploded off of Dan’s shield right as Sam finished talking. “Damn it Sam we are fighting him now!” Dan started yelling. “Id rather all of us be injured and fighting to our last breaths with a small chance of victory then fully healthy at the mercy of a dark god.”

Dan’s words seemed to snap Sam back into the reality of their situation, and give him clarity as he finally knocked an arrow into his bow. Sam was now more vigilant of his friends; no his enemies movements and attack patterns. Dan was right maybe this was all shadow Bahamut was, a shadow of evil that forces people to kill each other but cannot do anything more. 

Sam was too injured to move so he stayed behind Dan and lined up his shot. When he found his target he let the arrow loose and it soared through the arrow with a brilliant golden light and pierced Shaun’s left leg. Shaun let out a strange and sharp toned hiss as he dropped his staff and staggered back a little. Black blood was oozing from his leg where the arrow had pierced. Everyone starred at Shaun briefly then were back to focusing on each other. 

Ella who was keeping her distance looking for an opening suddenly charged at Sam and Dan. Sam already had another arrow ready and fired it aiming right for the path in front of Ella too slow her down but not injure her. The arrow landed right in front of Ella’s head as Sam intended but then exploded into a small dazing golden light. Ella made the same hiss as Shaun did and started walking around without any sense of balance; as if completely dizzy and blind. 

Watching Ella after his attack gave Sam an idea; what if he could change the arrow into something more by just willing it to be what he wants, the same way magic is crafted; he thought to himself. Sam knocked another arrow into his bow and aimed it at Andy, except this time the arrow transformed into a net of golden light halfway and wrapped around Andy pinning him to the ground. 

Dan and Sam then looked around at their friends after that; Ella was still dazed and confused struggling just to walk, Andy was pinned to the ground in the net, and Shaun was still struggling to pull the light arrow out of his leg. It was a small victory but Dan and Sam took the moment to rejoice and catch their breaths, Sam discovered how much of a toll magic can take on you and he was feeling drained just from a few arrows. 

Their victory though very small was shortly lived as their friends started grouping back up slowly, Ella was no longer dazed and back in her elf form, Shaun got the arrow out of his knee, and Andy had broken out of the net. Now the three stood side by side starring and Sam and Dan and then they started laughing maniacally. Sam and Dan gave each other confused and concerned glances then went back to starring at their friends. 

The friends stopped laughing and held out their hands as black orbs appeared in them from out of nowhere and began shaping into small daggers. Sam immediately knocked an arrow in his bow and took aim but to his surprise his friends put the daggers to their throats instead. Sam started breathing more heavily and faster as he was now confronted with an impossible choice, he could save one but then the others would die. He started shifting his aim between his friends the panic inside him growing more and more as he started to hyperventilate. Then Dan put his hand on Sam’s shoulder and Sam struggled to turn his head away from his friends and look at Dan.

Dan gave him a calm look, then nodded and threw down his sword and shield. Sam started to breath normally now and slowly lowered his bow and arrow. Then Sam took in a deep breath and threw his weapon to the ground as well and looked back to his possessed friends to see what they would do next.

Andy, Ella, and Shaun all smiled with sharp yellow teeth as their eyes were now pitch black. They pulled the blades away form their throats and Sam and Dan let out a breath of relief. Then the possessed friends held the blades out form their chests and before either Dan or Sam could shout, they brought the blades into their chests and through their hearts, and then fell to the ground dead.

 

The sudden shock of his friend’s deaths woke Sam up and he started panicking briefly until he looked around and noticed that he was still at the entrance to the temple with the door open and Dan was in the same state of shock as him. Sam took a moment to get his bearings then he went around too look at his friends. Their eyes were wide open but completely blank and dead as if asleep almost. 

“They must still be hallucinating” Dan said from behind Sam.

“Yeah but how do we help them?” Sam asked still checking on his friends, especially Ella.

“You don’t.” Dan said.

Sam turned around to face Dan just as Dan thrust his sword through Sam’s stomach. The shock of emotion and pain paralyzed Sam to the point where he could barley lean against Dan for support to stand up and only stare into his friends eyes; his eye’s that were no longer a deep friendly blue replaced now with nothing but black. Dan held Sam up by his sword while he wore a sinister smile on his face. 

Sam coughed out some blood, and then Dan pulled his sword out from Sam’s stomach and stepped aside to let Sam fall down onto his knees then his side. Sam felt colder and colder as his blood formed a puddle around him and soon started spilling down the steps behind him. “I got to admit” Dan said in a voice that was not his own. “I was honestly enjoying watching you squirm around there for a while. Struggling to save yourself and your friends but being so overwhelmed and almost helpless. It’s the worst feeling of all isn’t it; the feeling of a false hope, believing you could win and save all your friends as well. 

You try so hard, always reassuring yourself that you can make; you can all make it but as the fight progresses the hopelessness of the situation sinks in and you then start to think to yourself, ‘Who do I save?’

Sam struggled to look up at his possessed friend practice swinging a blade back and forth close to the necks of his friends. 

“I was considering making you watch your friends die all over again but I think I shall just play with them some more in their heads before killing them off un-expectantly. I’ll make sure the see it coming of course like maybe one of them will lose control of their car in there and crash and die, let their brain tell them their dead with barley doing anything at all.”

“W-Why are you doing this?” Sam said as he struggled to stay awake now.

Dan leaned down now to face Sam and said, “Simply because I want to. I’m the exact opposite of Bahamut remember? Basically I am simply the incarnation of evil really. You know I think I will give you a prize for making it this far actually I’m going to send one of your friends to the afterlife just seconds before you.”

Dan stood back up and slung his blade behind his shoulders just swinging it up and down a small bit while walking back and forth amongst his friends.

“So then who shall I send with you?” Dan asked.

Sam was silent, struggling even more to keep his eyes open, any thought of even getting up to try and stop Dan were long gone; he was too weak.

“Can’t decide?” Dan said. “Oh I know who!” Dan stopped walking then took a couple paces back and stopped in front of Ella. “How about your little girlfriend, she was having a fun date with you back in my dream world I’m sure she would love to be reunited with the real you even more though. It’s been fun warrior of the light.” 

Dan then raised his sword high above his head preparing to cut Ella down with one powerful swing. Sam could do nothing but watch the horrific scene.

“ENOUGH!” A loud voice boomed throughout Sam’s head vibrating everything around him. The voice was followed by a blinding white light that warmed Sam up and gave him energy. Though Sam couldn’t hear or see anything he felt his strength restoring almost immediately and felt stronger than ever before. Then the blinding white light was gone and Sam was standing side by side with Dan once more an arrow knocked in his bow facing Shaun. 

Sam looked back at Dan and saw his friend was just as weary of him as he was. Then the two heard a deafening roar coming from the entrance to the temple. They turned their heads to see a glorious white dragon reaching all the way up to the top of the doors with a white light shinning around it. The dragon closed its mouth after its roar and took a step into the temple and the light radiating off of it immediately focused into smaller beams that bathed Sam and everyone else in a warm light.

The light recharged Sam’s energy and when he faced his friends again he could see shadows twisting and writhing off them retreating from the light to the opposite end of the temple. The friends were all in a panic as they came to their senses and the light soon faded away. They looked at Sam and Dan who were looking exhausted from fighting but relived too see their friends again. Sam and Dan lowered their weapons and gave their friends a big smile, their friends smiled back then everyone turned their attentions to the white dragon at the doors of the temple. 

In a deep and authoritative voice the dragon said, “I am Shako, Avatar to the lord Bahamut and his legacy.”


	14. The Legacy of Bahamut

Chapter Thirteen: The Legacy of Bahamut

 

Everyone was in astonish by this newcomer, was he really Shako? Before the friends had more than a second to think about it they felt a familiar presence at the back of their minds. This presence was friendly and non intrusive it waited patiently for everyone to accept it in. As soon as they did the friends were all mentally teleported to an empty white zone where Shako as they knew him stood before them.

They cried tears of joy at his presence and all ran up to hug him, Shako accepted all of their hugs gracefully and in return wrapped his wings around them all. After a minute they all pulled themselves together and Shako smiled at them as they let go of him and took a step back. 

All of them were practically speechless and the only thing anyone could manage to say to him was “How did you survive that fall?”

Shako looked sad for just an instant then went back to his happy face and said, “I did not.”

Before the friends could hound him with anymore questions Shako spoke up again, “After my death I ascended. My mortal body was shed and I became the avatar to Bahamut. This is my new life now so do not be sad it is part of the cycle, a part of my destiny. I only recently woke up and came over as soon as I could but you were already caught in the shadow’s trap.”

“Yeah shamefully he used me to get to Sam as well.” Dan said regretfully. “But if he had control of me all along why didn’t he attack Sam when he had the chance?”

“You fought off his initial invasion and were in total control but shadow Bahamut was still in part of you waiting to jump to Sam. As soon as Sam’s heart started to waver right before your speech shadow Bahamut leaped into Sam and very subtlety took control of him. And then when you saw Sam struggling with control your heart weakened enough for Shadow Bahamut to link you two into the same nightmare.”

“But I don’t understand why didn’t shadow Bahamut take control of me in the first place?” Sam asked.

“Perhaps your heart was just too strong for him to begin with.” Shako said smiling at Sam. He then turned his attention to Dan who was still upset about what he did. “Dan your heart may not have been as strong as Sam’s is, but when you felt shadow Bahamut was threatening your friends you immediately wrestled control back and went to Sam’s aid. You will always be the wall standing between your friends and any enemy eager to hurt them. 

Now then our time is almost up, in here time may move much slower than in the real world but Shadow Bahamut is fast and is almost finished putting himself together so here is what were are going to do. I will take him on head to head at the far end of the tunnel doing my best to keep him distracted and pushed back. Now this temple was made specifically to seal in Shadow Bahamut so his only exit is the doors behind us.

Ella you are going to stay several paces behind me at all times in your behemoth form. If Shadow Bahamut manages to slip past me even a little bit you push him back anyway you can, do not worry about anything else. And Shaun you will remain at the entrance standing in the middle of the doors; you are our last line of defense. If Shadow Bahamut manages to make it past me and Ella you throw up a barrier surrounding the entire doorway, I know it’s a large area but if he escapes then it is all over for everyone.

Right now he is not yet at full power so we still have a good chance, and Sam, Andy, Dan you three will be our attackers. Dan your light sword can launch pure energy projectiles if you will it to do so but you only get four shots until you will be completely drained, same goes with you Sam; your arrows follow your will. And Andy, you will attack from the ceiling so levitate up their and wait for an opening; remember you have been using another’s power for so long you forgot how strong yours is. You must now believe in yourself, your power comes from no one else but you.”

After Shako was done talking the friends returned back to their bodies and were in the temple again. At the far end of the temple where he was before the first time they fought him, was shadow Bahamut, this time he was real and much, much larger. He was so dark that his skin looked like an oily black color; just looking at him was difficult. Shako let out a loud and quick roar before charging at shadow Bahamut with impossible speed; the friends took their positions and readied themselves, the battle had now begun. 

* * * *

Josh arrived at the hospital out of breath and threw his bike down as he got off it and bolted to the entrance. He was breathing heavily now but pushed on, he ran straight for the elevator and hit the button. It took what felt like an eternity to josh just for the elevator doors to open and he ran inside then pushed the button leading to his friend’s floor; he would have taken the stairs but he was too tired to run anymore though. While the elevator slowly rose up Josh caught his breath and tried thinking positive, he would get up there his friends would all just be waking up and the doctors would only be alerted to the scene sometime after josh got in there.

The elevator stopped, its doors opened up and everything seemed to go in slow motion to Josh. All about the floor were nurses and doctors running, all of them running to the same place Josh was going to; the coma ward. Josh was still tired and still catching his breath but he didn’t care he started running after the doctors and nurses. Finally when he got to the room where all his friends were at some nurses were blocking the way but he pushed past them determined to get in and see his friends. 

Everything was still in slow motion to Josh and there was a pair of doctor and nurse at the bed of all his friends. One by one they started to wake up as their pulses began to rise, and one by one they all turned their attention to Sam. Josh too found himself looking away from his friends that were waking up and looking in the direction of Sam’s bed but there were two doctors and three nurses surrounding Sam.

The heart monitor hooked up to Sam to check his pulse was running a flat steady line, where there should have been a jump in it every quarter of a second. One of the doctors started pushing down on Sam’s chest in rhythm, but when that didn’t work they brought in a defibrillator and tried using that; but to no avail. The last thing Josh saw was the saddened look on his friends faces as they were all in tears, and the last thing Josh heard before being pulled out of the room was “Time of death 6:05 a.m.” 

* * * *  
Shadow Bahamut was prepared for Shako’s charge and threw himself out of the way at the last second. Sam immediately released his arrow with a golden burst of light aimed at Shadow Bahamut as he began his course to dodge Shako. The arrow came just inches form Shadow Bahamut’s neck as it turned its head up towards the ceiling to avoid the arrow while simultaneously avoiding Shako’s initial attack. 

Andy noticed that Shadow Bahamut’s eyes seemed to find Andy the moment it tilted its head up to dodge Sam’s attack. Andy was still chanting in demonic language preparing for a powerful spell but Shadow Bahamut, after removing himself from any way of immediate attacks; opened his mouth and a burst of purple flames shot out at Andy. Andy was able to swiftly teleport out of the way avoiding the flames entirely, but he was forced to let go of all the energy he’d been summoning for the massive spell. Andy silently cursed to himself; Shadow Bahamut wasn’t going to give them enough time for something big; they would have to hit him with something small the instant an opening showed up on shadow Bahamut.

Shadow Bahamut who was now completely recovered from the attack on him, was standing on the far end of the temple and only briefly glanced his eyes towards the exit when a massive arc of white energy soared through the air aimed at him. Shadow Bahamut was caught partially by surprise and despite his immense speed the attack grazed his left shoulder and sliced off a chunk of his wing left wing; which fell to the ground and began dissolving into black smoke. Shadow Bahamut let out a massive scream of pain for a brief second but was silenced when Shako slammed him into the wall with his body. 

Shako had one hand wrapped around Shadow Bahamut’s neck and the other around his mouth keeping it clamped shut. Shako without the use of his hands tried his best to keep Shadow Bahamut pinned to the wall but Shadow Bahamut didn’t wait long enough for even Sam to aim his bow, as he drew up a force of will power and energy and in a blast of invisible energy pushed Shako off him and made him go tumbling across the temple grounds. Andy didn’t hesitate as he rained down small balls of white fire all over Shadow Bahamut; Sam must have had the same idea because at the same time the fire began raining down on Shadow Bahamut so too did an arrow of golden light launch at him.

But despite their speed and instant actions, Shadow Bahamut proved to be faster and well prepared. As the attack came at him he covered himself in a black oily like dome of energy that blocked the attack entirely; the dome then fell apart after the attacks were finished but Shadow Bahamut was nowhere to be seen. In a moment of panic Sam and Andy looked behind them to see if he might have teleported, but Ella and Shaun were still at their spots watching the battle intensely prepared for any sign of danger that came their way.

Sam and Andy looked back in front of them in time to see a huge arc of white lighting being shot at a random area in the temple form Shako. The lighting hit its mark halfway across the temple revealing Shadow Bahamut’s location as well as pushing him back towards the throne violently. Shadow Bahamut soon enough recovered form the attack and began eyeing Shako with great anger. While the two glared off at each other the friends noticed that Shadow Bahamut’s wing span that had been sliced off from Dan’s attack was now completely grown back as if it never happened.

Sam hesitated briefly wondering if they were at all hurting him enough to do any real damage or if these were just miner scratches that would mean nothing in the long run of the battle. The hesitation nearly proved to be Sam’s undoing as Shadow Bahamut, who seemed to have an omnipresence suddenly turned to face Sam and lash out with an enormous stream of purple flames that closed the gap between the two almost instantly. Sam did not have enough time to dodge out of the way as he threw his arms in front of himself as a desperate shield.

Andy moving faster then anyone thought he was capable of, was in front of Sam countering the onslaught of purple flames with his own white flames. Andy’s flames were holding back the purple ones but just barley, he was giving it everything he got to keep them at bay and was losing ground fast; he knew that if he didn’t do something soon the flames would overrun his, and he would be nothing but ash. 

Dan didn’t know what Shako was waiting for, maybe he was recovering but as he stared at the spectacle of Andy shielding Sam with his flames he knew his friends were in grave peril if someone didn’t act fast. Like the first time, Dan called up as much energy as he could and pictured releasing it with one powerful swing of his sword. After he had the picture fixed in his head again he spun around on his feet giving his sword a good arc for his attack. The white energy soared on the form of his sword swing aimed for Shadow Bahamut’s entire mid torso. 

Shadow Bahamut didn’t have enough time to stop the flames and dodge the attack and for a moment Dan thought he had him. However when Shadow Bahamut did stop the flames his body suddenly turned into a wisp of thick black smoke that took the same shape and form of Shadow Bahamut as Dan’s attack passed through it harmlessly.

After the purple flames let up Andy dropped his attack and fell to his knee’s gasping for air. Sam rushed over to make sure he was alright, he was, but he was also exhausted and completely sweating. For a moment Sam thought Andy was going to be alright when the sudden realization that demons do not sweat without exerting almost everything they have in them. Sam touched Andy’s bare hand; that he noticed was shaking uncontrollably, and felt that it was cold as ice. Andy saved Sam’s life but exhausted every store of energy he had in him, he was probably struggling to stay awake at this point. Sam took off his cloak wrapped it around Andy and kneeled down next to him and put Andy’s arm around him as he helped him to his feet and carefully began retreating back. Andy would become deadweight and a hostage in the front lines now, so Sam had to get him back to Ella and Shaun where he would be safest.

Almost immediately after Shadow Bahamut had returned back form the smoke form to his normal form, Shako was charging at him. He stumbled only in the first step and recovered instantly but that small gap of time gave Shadow Bahamut enough room to dodge the charge and bolt straight for the exit wings flapping so fats they looked like nothing but blurry dark colors around him. Ella prepared herself for the charge but like a person swatting an annoying fly out of its path, Shadow Bahamut back handed Ella without any appeared effort or slowing down. Ella was sent sprawling all the way into the wall on the other end of the temple.

Shaun had enough time to brace himself for Shadow Bahamut’s charge and put forth everything he had into his barrier just in case. Fortunately Shaun hah held nothing back because when Shadow Bahamut came into his barrier it almost shattered instantly. To Shaun it felt like a normal person trying to stop a runaway locomotive with his bare hands only doing so by some divine miracle. 

Shaun could feel his energy draining so fats that in less then a second he stopped feeling it drain away and he began going numb; but still he held his barrier strong. Shadow Bahamut after having rebound from the invisible barrier starter wailing at it with his fists; Shaun stayed strong keeping the barrier up ignorant of the blood trickling down from his nose. 

Shadow Bahamut was so focused on the barrier that he failed to notice Ella coming at him with extreme force until it was too late. He tried to stop her in a vain attempt that sent both of them sprawling on the ground wrestling for control from one another. While Shaun was glad for the reprise, as soon as Shadow Bahamut was no longer in his direct line of sight he collapsed to the ground, still awake but completely numb. 

Ella was losing the struggle for control while wrestling with Shadow Bahamut and the first opportunity she got, she used a combination of her raw strength and wind magic to launch Shadow Bahamut off of her and high up into the air. Shadow Bahamut took a second to straighten himself out in the air as the wind magic was still pushing at him trying to prevent just that. He flapped his wings once to straighten out and face Ella, her wind magic now nothing more than a gentle breeze to him. 

Shadow Bahamut was prepped for a counterattack against Ella now when he finally realized the massive energy that had been charging up from the opposite end of the temple’s entrance. Shadow Bahamut turned just in time to see a massive blast of silver energy coming right at him. Shadow Bahamut prepared every bit of last minute defenses he could but they only delayed the inevitable. The blast smacked against his shields and magical barriers but shattered them almost instantly and literally ripped him into shreds.

Shadow Bahamut fell in clumps of black chunks that appeared to be dissolving into black shadowy smoke. After starring at Shadow Bahamut’s remains for several seconds the friends all looked over to Shako for conformation the battle was over. Shako carefully flew over to the remains and slowly without ever lowering his guard waved his hand over the remains of Shadow Bahamut. Shako turned to face the group and nodded in an, “OK” fashion. All of them let out a large breath of relief; it was over finally, after everything they had been through it was all over.

Ella helped Shaun to his feet, putting his arm around her back and carrying almost all of his weight. Sam let Andy go as per his request; Andy struggled for a moment to stay on his feet balanced and almost fell but then caught himself and gave Sam a reassuring smile. They all gathered around the center of the temple where Shako was, everyone was exhausted but they had been worse off then they were now. Shako shrunk himself down to a figure around their height but he was still pretty massive when compared to any of them. 

They all closed in around Shako with open arms, hugging him. Shako in return let out a low deep throated chuckle and wrapped his wing span around all of them. They all embraced for a few minutes, it was wonderful to have their friend back, though they hadn’t known him well Shako had become like family too all of them. After they broke the embrace Dan asked, “So where do we go from here?”

Shako looked everyone in the face slowly before addressing all of them, “The power I borrowed from my lord Bahamut has almost been depleted, and opening a portal to your world takes tremendous amount of energy. I can still do it, but it has to be now, unfortunately it’s not only a one way trip I also will only have the power to do so for a few more minutes and won’t be returning to this life ever again; if you do not go now you may never return to your former lives again.”

The friends struggled to hold back the tears beginning to blur their visions, they had pieced it together almost immediately after he said it but still someone had to ask. “What are you saying,” Ella said her voice cracking under the sorrow. “That even if we stay we can’t be with you, that even though we won you still don’t get to live?”

“Shako smiled at her as modestly as he could and said, “I am already dead, this form is just a borrowed vessel temporarily storing my soul; it is time for me to move on from this life.” Shako sounded almost happy at this.

“It’s not fair!” Ella stammered no longer able to stop the flow of tears in her eyes. “You deserve so much more, after everything you have done, after all you suffered.” Ella wanted to continue but had to stop herself because she was about ready to fall to her knees and cry if she said another word. Shako simply placed his hand around her shoulder and said sincerely, “My kind hearted friend have you learned nothing from your journey? This is not my story,” Then Shako looked around to everyone and continued, “It is your story, I was but the humble guide and now that my role is finished I move on to my story.”

“It’s all my fault,” Andy said starring at the ground after Shako finished speaking. “If I hadn’t made that pact with Baelfien all those years ago, then we would have stopped Shadow Bahamut the first time and you wouldn’t be dead, Ella is right it isn’t fair to you.”

“Andy, I know your life has been full of mistrust and bad decisions, but through every course you found your own way. Baelfien would have used you to kill all your friends a long time ago but you constantly fought him unknowingly; it is true his influence eventually spread through you entirely but here you stand before me all the same. I know that if you had too you would have faced your old master alone, and then done everything in your power to make things right by your friends and band together to stop the evil even without my help. 

Sometimes you must fall to the bottom to see that you were far from the top of the mountain. But the bottom is not so bad, there you get to see your mistakes, learn how to never make them again, recover and overcome your greatest failure to be something greater, to reach the top of that mountain; a feat you could not have done before had you not fallen in the first place.”

Andy half laughed half let out his breath and said, “So fall from grace only to fly above the clouds and into the stars.”

Shako hadn’t quite understood the metaphor but he did understand that Andy knew what he was talking about. “Now then my friends,” Shako said in a more serious tone. “It is time for you to decide shall you return to your former lives? Or will you remain here?” 

They all looked around at one another, before the answer had seemed so simple but now they were confronted with the actual question, they were unsure of what to do. Time was ticking away and they knew Shako would not be able to send them back if they debated over it; however it was finally Dan who spoke up, “We had a great run here, and have all grown so much but we came here for a reason, and that reason has been fulfilled. Just like Odysseus, we must now face our old lives armed with our new found knowledge and maturity.” 

Dan didn’t look quite as assured as he sounded but he was right, they ventured forth to return home after saving that world, it was now time for them to return to their world. Everyone except Sam faced Shako and said, “We are ready to return home.” The friends noticed right away Sam’s exclusion from their decision and all faced him.

Sam took a couple steps back to better address all of them, “I told you guys a long time ago my dream had always been to visit a world just like this one, to me it wasn’t just some fairytale it was my future; my destiny. I promised that I would do whatever it took to see to it you guys could go home if you wanted… but this is where we part ways.”

Ella looked like she was about to scream her head off in frustration at Sam until Andy put his hand over her mouth and said, “He’s right, Sam did state numerously over the years every time we would bring up the thought of home that he was never going back. I’m sure he has thought long and hard over this decision and it can’t be easy for him; however it is his decision and we must respect it.” 

“No,” Ella stated. “Your coming with us even if-”

-“Friends,” Shako interrupted. “It is time, I shall open the portal now and if you wish to return home simply step through it.”

Then when Shako finished speaking the air in front of them began to distort and shimmer, more and more until they could see clearly another world in front of them; like looking through a slightly blurry window. They saw their young human bodies, all lying on hospital beds hooked up to machines keeping them alive. All of them then turned around and gave Sam one last hug and they all wished him the best of luck, and he to them. They looked to Shako but found that he was gone, he probably spent up his last energy making that portal and was moving onto his next life.

Sam felt a mixture of heartbreak and utter delight as he watched his friends slowly begin walking into the portal. They almost seemed to be pulled into it much like how they were sucked into the portal in the book. For a brief moment Sam was perfectly happy; but that moment was shattered when the overwhelming sense of danger flared off in his senses. Sam turned around in time to see the last bits of Shadow Bahamut now taken the form of only his head shoot out a ball of purple flames aimed directly for Andy; without even thinking about it Sam rushed forward to block the path of the flames from his friend.

 

Dan, Ella, Shaun, and Andy hugged their dearest friend goodbye for the last time they ever would and walked to the portal. As they got closer to they could feel it pulling them in; it wasn’t as strong as the pull that first brought them to that world but it was still fairly powerful. They got closer to the other side, one more step and they would be home, back to their old lives; the pull of the portal now was so strong they struggled just to keep form being sucked into it. 

All of them turned around struggling against the now collapsing portal’s magnetic pull and saw Sam diving through the air, he passed over Shaun and when he got in front of Andy his body was thrown back and twisted through the air. When the front of him faced them they could see purple flames quickly burning through his chest. Sam hit the ground hard and rolled onto his side in agony to face them; he coughed out black blood trying to say something.

Andy and Shaun who were too weak to stand on their own were immediately sucked into the portal when Ella and Dan who were supporting them let go to go after Sam. Sam had no strength left in him, he couldn’t speak without coughing up more blood, the fire had pierced his chest and charred parts of his heart, he knew he was dead; and so did Dan. Ella however did not, and When Sam pointed his finger at Ella who was resisting the suction of the portal to get to Sam, Dan read in his eyes what he wanted of him.

Dan was never really great at making decisions, he always let others do it for him and tried to avoid being the center of attention or any form of it all so he didn’t have to decide. But after going through many trials and surviving a difficult life in a new world where every decision he made would impact the outcome of his very life and those around him he learned to become a leader and how to make the right decision. 

When Dan’s best friend Sam was on his deathbed, telling Dan, not with his words but his eyes, to get Ella back home to safety; Dan was confronted with an impossible decision. Dan didn’t see what Sam saw but he knew it was dangerous, however Dan also knew that if he went against Sam’s will that between his and Ella’s healing magic they had a small chance to save Sam. Even though Dan had less than a fraction of a second to decide, his brain seemed to move so fast that it processed everything, every outcome of the situations, and paths he could take; Dan made the hard decision.

* * * *  
Sam watched as Dan wrapped his arm around Ella’s waist turned away from him and leaped through the portal that was now no bigger than his torso. As soon as his friend’s were through the portal it collapsed into nothingness and left no trace of its existence. Sam then turned on his side, an effort that was extremely painful and equally as difficult. 

Sam looked over to where the head of Shadow Bahamut was but only saw a small chunk of oily black flesh that was disintegrating into black shadowy smoke. Within a second it was gone, and a third of a second later even the shadowy smoke was completely dissipated. Sam rolled onto his back starred at the ceiling while bleeding to death all alone in a world of his greatest fantasy, closed his eyes… and smiled.


	15. Epilogue

Epilogue

 

About a month after Dan, Shaun, Ella and Andy woke up from their comas they began going into muscle rehab therapy. They rarely talked to any of the hospital staff and only talked to each other when they felt it was safe to do so alone. Josh would visit them everyday but after an hour or so they sent him away.

At some point the friends all requested a group therapist to talk about things. They never gave the doctors or their parents a full explanation of why they needed a therapist but no one questioned it too much given the sudden change in their personalities after waking up. To the world they were ordinary fun loving teenagers who had a knack for being social in any environment so long as they were with each other, but suddenly after waking up from a seven month comma they did a one hundred and eighty degree turn. No one could explain the anomaly so maybe a therapist was a good idea. 

The friends never went into great detail about the other world and only told the therapist, Mrs. Summers that while asleep they had some sort of shared dream that took region and life based off their own imaginations. Of course they never let Mrs. Summers know that it was all real, the only thing she needed to know was that to them it felt real and they were having issues suddenly coming back into the real world. 

Over the months the friends were finally able to leave the hospital though they still went to the daily group therapy session with Mrs. Summers. For a while she thought they were making progress but no more than a week of after being out of the hospital and alone did the friends have horrific nightmares that haunted them, they screamed out in terror, or were out of bed running for their lives from something. These night-terrors came most frequently when the friends slept alone, so for a while Mrs. Summer had them group together at someone’s house before they went to sleep and it helped them greatly.

Gradually they began sleeping apart in other rooms at same house, from time to time they would have a night terror but it wasn’t nearly as bad as before. It was summer now and they were finally able to sleep in their own homes without screaming in terror or sleep running for their lives. They did lots of physical exorcises to pass the time, and avoided books, video games, TV, and stuff like that all together. They were talking more with their parents but didn’t interact with anyone in their neighborhood; not that they did that one before. 

Eventually Ella dropped out from the group therapy, having nothing left to say to Mrs. Summers; she it seemed had things the hardest of them all. Afterwards Mrs. Summers decided it would be best for them to do individual therapy sessions. Over the summer things started getting better, not by much but slowly they were coming back. Andy, with the help of Mrs. Summers started patching things up with his Dad and was soon smiling again and just trying to live his life like Sam, and Shako would have wanted him too; he no longer needed or went to therapy.

Shaun’s visits to the therapists became fewer and fewer as well but he still went. Dan one day decided to open up his more intimate moments with Mrs. Summers. “Back in that world I used to have a lover.” Dan said. “Her name was Sally, she went to church, had beautiful autumn hair. She also had a child, Aaron; he was about 12 when we met. Me, her, and Aaron would go to church everyday and then walk down to a nearby lake in the town; swim around when the weather was warm enough, and if it was cold we would return to the lake later then huddle up on top of a hill and watch the sunset together as… well like a family. Then me and Sally would return home, and after Aaron was asleep,” Dan’s cheeks began to redden at the next part of his story. “We would get intimate.”

“So then you’re having trouble interacting with other girls of your age because of relations you had in the dream world?” Mrs. Summer inquired.

“It’s not just that,” Dan said now looking up at the ceiling. “In there I was a fully matured adult, I was a father figure, and if not bound by duty I would be a husband as well, probably with a child of my direct descendant on the way someday. But now I’m a young adult again practically as young as Aaron when I met him.” 

Dan looked away from the ceiling, sat up straight and looked Mrs. Summers in the eye and said, “How do I go from being a fully mature adult for so many years to being a kid again. I was ready to lay down my sword have a family, and be content to grow old and die after spending nearly everyday at the lake with my family, wife, son, maybe even a daughter. How do I go from that; to this?” Dan asked as he gestured to himself with some obvious frustration in his voice. 

He kept his eye contact with Mrs. Summers who was in deep thought about all that he had said when he looked away took in a deep breath and the let it out slowly and apologized for his attitude. 

Mrs. Summers smiled at him and said gently, “Dan, you are a very mature young man. I do not have all the answers, and I know you want them now but I believe that in time these answers will come to you. I also know you love your friends dearly but perhaps you should try spending some time with some others, perhaps they can help you remember what it was like to be young again.

School is starting up in a few more weeks, that’s always the greatest place to make new friends and socialize. You guys will be juniors now right? I heard you all got caught up over the last summer. Elective courses are a great way to meet other students of the same interests.” 

Dan smiled at Mrs. Summers and for the rest of the session the two talked about something simple and totally unrelated to the previous subject; they talked about sports.

After a couple years of being back to their old world Dan, Shaun, and Andy were graduating from high school and were starting to look into college. After the graduation ceremony, when the three of them did not see Ella anywhere they, and Josh went to Sam’s grave. There they found Ella standing in a dark trench coat starring at Sam’s tomb stone. They said nothing as they went to stand behind Ella but made sure that there arrival was loud enough for her to hear footsteps from behind her.

Eventually and without ever turning her head from the tombstone Ella asked, “So, how was the ceremony?”

“Bland, mostly uneventful but somehow in its own way good” Shaun said. 

Ella didn’t say anything right away and took a couple minutes before taking in a deep breath, letting it out then saying, “Do you regret coming back here?”

The question caught everyone off guard and they had to take several minutes to think about it. It wasn’t the first time they thought about it but this time they had to share; and honestly to their friend and themselves how they really felt about the question.

Andy was the first to speak saying, “At times yes. I mean I missed home; I mean I missed here some days while I was in that world and I regret many of the things I’ve done in there, but if I had to do it all again I don’t think I would have returned here.”

“I do miss the magic and the adventures” Shaun said. “But no, despite all the thrills and dangers of that world I prefer to be here on earth; although if our journey there has taught me one thing it’s careful what you wish for, truly.”

Ella finally turned around to face her friends after Shaun finished speaking.

“You know honestly even though things have been getting back to ‘normal’ with us, and though were settling back in fine I know that none of us will ever be able to fully recover from all the scars we obtained in the otherworld. We’ll still smile, still laugh and have fun, even if its not with each other but the memories of that otherworld all its magic, wonder and danger will still always be with us here… in a plain, mundane life. However we will eventually move on, find ourselves living a peacefully, happy and fulfilling live somewhere. 

That being said, yes I regret returning here. I regret forcing you to come back with me Ella; it was the single hardest decision of my life and deep down inside I have regretted it every waking second. I won’t let that regret hold me back or stop me from being happy but it will always haunt me for the rest of my life.”

Ella stood there in silence taking in everything that her friends told her and when she was ready she turned to face Josh and asked, “If you could, knowing what you do now; would you joined us from the very beginning?”

It took Josh a few moments to asses his thoughts when he said, “I haven’t told you guys this because it felt inappropriate but I followed your adventures throughout that world by reading them in the pages of the book that sucked you in there. It was passionate and indifferent, wonderful and horrific. The moment I finished the book and saw Sam’s death written within the pages I rushed over to the hospital on my bike constantly telling myself it wasn’t happening but when I got there, well you already know. 

Though I dreamt of that world like we all did, and still do dream of other worlds and what it would be like to travel through them in an epic journey like your, I honestly don’t think I would have had what it takes to become the hero of the story even if destiny was on my side. So in answer to your question no, I would not join you if I could.”

Ella looked around at her friends until addressing all of them, “Thank you guys for all your answers. I believe it’s fair I told you my side of things as well. Secretly I fell in love with Sam the moment we met and as time passed and we hung out and got to know each other more those feelings grew stronger. I always hoped he would one day ask me out and we would become ever closer, even in that world I wished he would want more from me then friendship. 

During the final battle with Shadow Bahamut when we were trapped in our own heads I was back here and me and Sam were dating; it was the happiest I had ever been before in my life. And when I realized it was all a lie it broke my heart deeply.” 

Ella had to stop talking for a minute to wipe the stream of tears falling form her face. “And yes when the battle was over and it was time to move on I chose to return to earth with you guys, even when Sam decided to stay. But at the very end when Sam took that blast for you Andy I knew I could not leave him alone even if that meant never returning home.” Ella’s voice almost immediately turned from sorrow into anger and malice. “And you Dan, when you not only stopped me from going to him but forcefully pulled me back here against my will… I could live with the fact that you didn’t try to save him knowing the chance was almost zero but taking my choice away from me like that. Even if I could not save him I at least should have been there to hold him and let him know he was not alone in his final moments. 

I know you did what you believed to be the right thing, and it probably was; honestly if I stayed there who knows how bad I could have turned out at the loss of Sam. I might have even began searching endlessly for a necromancer who could raise the dead fully, not just there body but their mind heart and soul as well. But in my heart I will always blame you for holding me back; it will always be your fault Sam died that day; which is why I am moving away. This will be the last I ever want to see or hear from any of you. I do love all of you guys dearly but all you are to me now is a painful reminder of Sam and it’s time to move on, because if I don’t do it now it will forever hold me back and destroy me.”

Ella then turned away from her friends and walked away; that was the last time all of them were together in one place. 

 

After relaxing for a full summer with some part time jobs the friends all found a good college to go to each in a different city. And many years after graduating college they were all out in the world doing their own things. Shaun became a medical doctor, Dan got into construction and settled down with a family, Andy became a science professor and Josh was a successful small time author. 

The friends kept in basic contact over the internet but never really called each other on the phone or went to meet up in person; everyone except Ella who they hadn’t seen or heard from since graduation. 

Josh finished typing up the end to his story and saved it when he leaned back in his chair and relaxed. He decided to spin around a couple times until his chair inevitably came to a stop and he was staring at a stand across the room with a framed picture of his friends on the first day their freshman year of high school. Josh got off his chair and walked over to the picture then picked it up and starred at it. 

Minutes passed like seconds as Josh smiled and studied the picture his eyes slowly passing over each of his friends and he thought to himself, “You have all moved on I think its time for me to take that final step to moving on as well.” Josh then put the picture back on its stand and walked over to his bookshelf, the one that contained his favorite books of all time. On the top of the shelf at the far left end was a blue book that forever changed the life of him and his closest friends.

Josh pulled the book down from the shelf then walked over to his fire place and after tossing in a few logs and some old newspaper at the bottom he started a small fire. He looked at the book one last time and as he prepared to place it into the fire the sound of his doorbell rang and he put the book down on the couch and went to the door. Josh opened the door to a pretty woman in her early 30’s with dark hair and green eyes. 

Though she was nearly twice as old as the last time he saw her, Josh recognized Ella right away and out of joy and surprise wrapped his arms around her. The two embraced for a minute when Josh realized that it was much colder outside during the winter then it was inside his house with a nice cozy fire place. “Where are my manners won’t you please come in.”

Ella smiled and followed Josh into the house and the two sat down on the couch next to the fire place and talked. “So what brings you back here after all these years?” Josh asked.

“Well I was in town visiting Sam’s grave, dropping off some flowers when I suddenly got the urge to visit your hold house on the off chance you might still be living here or at least still in town; and well here you are.”

“Heh, yeah I actually just moved back her about half a year ago, after my old man passed away he left me the house in his will and I couldn’t seem to sell it so I moved in. Anyways about halfway through college I started writing books for a living. You know they’re not best sellers or flying off the shelves but they do make a living and I’m content. I’ve also got a wonderful girlfriend, but she’s in Toronto visiting her family for the holidays, I stayed behind to finish this book; I’m actually going to be on a flight out tomorrow morning.” Josh’s face went blank and he turned his head down from Ella then said, “Wow I just summarized half my life in like ten seconds.” 

The two of them laughed lightly then Josh asked, “How about you, how has your life been going?”

“Well I settled down a few years ago, have a child, he’s three now, and I’m into legal work. And I think I just beat your record for life summary in less then a minute.”  
The two of them laughed even longer and harder than before and when they settled down Ella glanced past Josh and noticed the book sitting behind him partially hidden by his torso. Josh looked back to the book when he noticed Ella staring at it and stood up and picked it up. “Yeah I uh, I held onto it all this time cause I guess I couldn’t move on entirely.” Josh said. “Well until now; I was actually going to burn it but if there’s a small chance you want it I don’t mind partying away with it either.”

Ella kept her eyes steady on the book listening to Josh until she shook her head then stood up and said, “It’s been great catching up but I think I should go.”

Josh took the hint and turned to the fire place and tossed the book inside it then he escorted Ella to the door both of them oblivious that as the book burned, the fire turned blue.


End file.
